F U L L E R & F U L L E R

So much for my lame excuse...

2008-05-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

The dormant phase

2008-02-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

It's been over a year since the first post at Fuller & Fuller. During that time, we've planted, harvested, cooked many loaves of bread and batches of seitan in the solar oven, and realized that despite all that, our hopes for the ranch are different. Probably too different. I had hoped for a triumph of complementarity, but Fuller & Fuller has failed R. Buckminster's test.

It's been almost a year and half that I've lived here, hoping, walking the mesa, strolling to work. My focus has been forced beyond the perimeter of the ranch. My "home" is becoming smaller than it's ever been, and because of that, more expansive. I expected to be embraced by this house, but as it's pushed me out I've been reminded of larger connections to the ocean and the mountains. The world is out there, greening and patient.

Winter's empty beds, imagining the fall harvest.

So excited!

2007-12-13T07:45:00.000-08:00

This headline from the San Francisco Chronicle was like an early Christmas gift:

Batboy key to report, breakthrough for Mitchell

Alas, turns out they're not talking about Batboy after all... just baseball. Now, so disappointed...

Turns out I'm not the only one. Shocking News from the North Pole: More and more Americans, even kids, don't get the satisfaction they expect from their Christmas gifts. Turns out that when Mommy takes a second job to buy the kids matching mini-Hummers, it really doesn't improve life that much...

In an innovative strategy combining No Child Left Behind with unprecedented Corporate subsidies, Americans can substitute time, care, and attention with imported Chinese stuff for a Low Low Introductory Credit Rates. Now more than ever, good parents—and good patriots—spend, spend, spend!

Or DON'T. Please don't. End of sermon by Reverend Whackamole. I'll yield the pulpit to Reverend Billy, from the Church of Stop Shopping. Today's reading from the Book of Visa: "What Would Jesus Buy?"

God bless us, every one.

The No Impact Year is over, but the holidays are just beginning

2007-11-20T07:54:00.000-08:00

At least for No Impact Man, Colin Beavan, who marks the end of his one year experiment today. I learned about the No Impact experiment in spring. From his blog:

The rationale for the project was this:

(lower negative impact) + (higher positive impact) = no net impact

This, of course, has no real basis in science but it was meant to make rational-sounding a more philosophical question. Could I and my family, for at least this one year, do more good than harm?

Over the year, we reduced to zero or as darn close to zero as we could:

* Our trash (we produced almost none)
* Carbon emissions associated with growing our food (we ate local, seasonal, unprocessed, vegetarian)
* Use of transportation dependent on fossil fuels (we rode bikes, push-scootered and walked)
* Consumption of resources (we bought only what we needed and then only second hand)
* Our use of mains electricity (we survived with the one lamp provided by a single solar panel, a lot of beeswax candles, no fridge and no laundry machine)
* Our use and pollution of water (lots of water conservation measures and use of homemade vegetable- and mineral-based, biodegradable, non-toxic cleaning and personal products)
* We also increased our positive impact through volunteering to help tend trees, raise money for charity, tend to oyster growing in the Hudson, etc.

By taking things to an extreme—an in Manhattan, no less—he was able to get a lot of attention from the press, and raised awareness about how much impact the average American has. As I've been reading the No Impact Man blog this year, I couldn't help but think how much easier his project would have been in Santa Barbara, where the climate is mild and local foods are abundant all year. WE CAN DO THIS. We don't have to go to the extreme, but we can make small changes that would have a big impact by making a big counter-impact. I'd like to join Trekking Left in saying I am thankful for the people who pay attention and sacrifice small comforts and question their habits. I believe that this planet matters to people. Unfortunately, I also believe that many people hear what they want to hear, and consumerism has a loud voice. My hope for the holidays is that people will consider options that help us all step off the Great American Treadmill.

A few options worth considering are:
Bill McKibben's book The Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas (get it at your library or else read about it here: Hundred Dollar Holiday)
Adbuster's Buy Nothing Christmas
New American Dream's Simplify the Holidays page

A Small Act of Resistance: The day after Thanksgiving is traditional THE biggest shopping day of the year. Please consider taking part in BUY NOTHING DAY. Yep, buy nothing all day, just to prove you still have a choice.

Don't it make my brown eggs blue

2007-11-12T10:19:00.001-08:00

This spring, we added a couple of Ameracauna chicks, Ramona and Ruby, to the ranch. While I chose my Buff Orpingtons because they are known for having excellent, calm temperments, the Ameracauna claim to fame is laying blue and green eggs. I've been waiting all year for some blue and green eggs. Egg production had stopped while the girls were molting, but started again a few weeks ago. Lots and lots and lots of brown eggs, including lots of cute little eggs. Brown, brown, and brown.

So, I came to realize that we had defective chickens, or that in fact our Ameracauna chicks were mixed-breeds which produced lovely small BROWN eggs. Sure, I still like Ramona and Ruby, but no denying I was disappointed.

Until yesterday. In one of the nests were a large brown egg, a small brown egg, a delicately blue egg, and one barely celadon. The photo doesn't capture the subtle shading very well, but here they are, finally!

Halloween Harvest

2007-10-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

The haunted harvest is in! Witch fingers (purple string beans), baby bat wings (Queen of Siam basil), ogre thumbs (mini eggplants), pumpkin embryos (sun gold tomatoes), and sea monster scales (Russian kale). Boo appetite!

Trick-n-Tax: In Illinois, they are now taxing pumpkins. No soup for you!

The Parable of the Lost Bat

2007-10-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

My friend Trekking Left asked, now that I've started Knit Another Planet, if Fuller & Fuller will be retired. I thought I would answer with a parable. Or a metaphor. Or maybe it's just a symbolic incident.

Earlier this year, we drove across the country to pick up a surplus step van in North Carolina. On the way back, we stopped at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. The man remembered going as a boy, and I had never been. I am so happy we spent the extra time, and risked ironically running out of gas in the abandoned oil fields of Texas to see the enormous cave. It was spectacular.

As a souvenir, I bought a pair of silver earrings shaped like bats—real bats, not Batman stencil bats. Tragically, I lost one of them before we got to San Diego, a casualty of napping in the back seat. I remember this trip as a wonderful adventure. While I try to avoid daily driving, I'm a sucker for a road trip.

Just last week, the man came into the room with a "Look what I found!" And sure enough, five months later, there is my missing earring, just in time for Halloween, our favorite holiday. Of course, in the meantime, the not-lost earring had found its own secret hiding place. It would have been reasonable to get rid of it, and I thought maybe I had. Dang it.

Last Friday, the man came into the room and said "I'm going to the store to buy some milk. Want anything?" Except instead of "the store," he said "Canada." And instead of "some milk," he said "an RV." And he didn't ask me if I wanted anything. If he had, I probably would have said that I wanted us to spend Halloween together.

Two things happened Saturday, my husband left for Canada, and I found the second bat earring. I doubted that I'd ever be able to wear my bat earrings again, but here they are, dangling from my ears as I type this, with all my thoughts circling between them.

I'm moving to the sticks

2007-10-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging here as much as I'd like. Fuller & Fuller was starter as "our" project, intended to chronicle our experiences in developing and improving life at the ranch.

It's time to tend my own spirit at least as carefully as I've been tending the garden.
The issues we've blogged about at Fuller & Fuller still matter to me, but it's been unraveling a bit.

That's why it's time to KNIT ANOTHER PLANET. Come visit, won't you?

Fuller & Emptier

2007-10-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Why, yes, I have lost weight! The polyp is gone. And no, Trekkie, I'm not gay, but the polyp was bi...opsied, and normal. Whew. I hope this concludes all blogging about my uterus.

Thanks to all who sent good wishes... I feel very lucky.

So, how are you celebrating?

2007-10-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is National Coming Out Day.

Some of you know, though I haven't blogged about it here, it's been a rough ride at the ranch. The earliest collaborative hopes of Fuller & Fuller were a little Fullerling. Unbeknowst to me, some little polyp has been trespassing in my uterus, not only kicking any willing zygote to the curb but also making me feel way too lousy way too often.

So, tomorrow, that damn polyp is coming out. Good riddance. Thanks to the Queen Mum coming up to play nurse, and to Princess Whackamole for pointing out that October 11 is the best day this could happen.

Happy Coming Out Day, everyone! Here's a little drawing of me victoriously kicking the polyp to the curb. Or else me being pulled into a black closet of doom and depression.

True story

2007-09-26T07:13:00.001-07:00

So, I went to the Sustainability Project lecture on transportation...

but had to leave early to catch the bus.

There are still three more classes in this free series, with lots of friends speaking and participating. The food lecture by DeAnn Bauer (EcoRealtor/Goddess)even featured pictures of Noelle Aguayo's fabulous garden. A talk by my favorite Garden Wise Guy, Billy Goodnick, is part of the October 16th class. I've really enjoyed the first three sessions, and learned a few things about the environment and my community.

All classes are at the SB Central Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, from 5:30-7:30ish (7:20 if you need to catch the 24X back to UCSB)

SESSION 4 / October 2nd
GOODS & SERVICES / Party Like an Eco-Rockstar!

Ten Ways to Make Your Next Event “Green” / Selecting Eco-friendly Services:
April Palencia, Peikert Group Architects; Elizabeth Waldrop, Village Realtors;
DeAnn Bauer, Village Realtors; Jennifer Downing, PMSM Architects
Panel Discussion

SESSION 5 / October 9th
HOME & GARDEN / Eco-Living, Gotta Love It!

Home Energy Efficiency: David Inger, VCREA Energy Projects Manager
Burke Remodel: Paul Poirier, Poirier & David Architects; Allen Associates
Doering Remodel: Bill Doering; Dennis Thompson, Thompson-Naylor Architects
Live Right, Live Small, and Have a Big Life: Isabelle Greene, Landscape Architect
Panel Discussion

SESSION 6 / October 16th
HOME & GARDEN / Find Joy and Heal the Planet!

Stancer Remodel: John Kelley, Architect; Lee Walmsley, Evergreen Landscape Arch.
Permaculture: A Revival of Common Sense – Larry Santoyo, Earthflow Design Works
The Wise Guys - Owen Dell & Billy Goodnick
Eco-footprint Reports – Paul Poirier, Poirier & David Architects
Panel Discussion

Who to Woohoo Wednesday: Anne Hastings

2007-09-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

It's easy to lose perspective in a community like Santa Barbara, especially when it comes to to a term like "poverty." While we have a lot of traffic at the Food Bank and many families struggling to make ends meet—and I don't mean to trivialize that struggle—being poor here is being rich in developing parts of the world.

In Haiti, for example, many people live on $1 a day. The country has struggled to find equality and justice since before its independence, and don't get me started about the role of the United States. Well, I'll just say one little thing, because it's relevant to the US Farm Bill. Our policies of subsidizing farmers in the US, and being sure that every corporation along the distribution chain gets to bleed out all the profit the (subsidized) market will bear, we end up having cheap rice to export. So we send it to our poorest neighbor, Haiti (again, being sure that all American shipping companies, etc., are generously paid). There, the rice is sold for much cheaper than the local rice, undercutting Haitian farmers, and pushing them off their land into urban slums. Where they enjoy the starchy goodness of US Humanitarian Aid. Meanwhile, the IMF and World Bank collects on debts accumulated by deposed dictators, payments guaranteed to keep the entire nation in poverty.

As you can tell, I get a little passionate about Haiti. So I was thrilled when the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life decided to host Anne Hastings, executive director of Haiti's largest microfinance organization, Fonkoze. The microfinance model gives women tiny loans, many under $50, but enough to transform lives in a place like Haiti. Fonkoze also educates and supports women in Haiti. Her lecture was entitled "Eradicating Global Poverty: Is It Really Achievable?"

Her talk at Victoria Hall last night gave background on Fonkoze, but focused on Hastings efforts to reach those living in extreme poverty. These people are living on less than fifty cents a day, with no concrete floor, often no roof, no latrine. The children must work instead of attending school. This is crushing poverty, or, as Hastings described it, "The poverty that kills." Hastings used the image of a ladder, on which one might climb out of poverty. "These are the people," she said, "who don't even have one foot on that ladder. Not a wheelbarrow, not a chicken, no way to get started." They are too poor even for microfinance. So, the new program helps them get that first foot on. It costs $300-$1000 for this 18-month intensive program which lifts a family of six out of killing poverty... (Gosh, one wonders... how could the US justify spending that much money on a foreign country? unless that foreign country has oil, of course...)

I was not surprised to hear she is good friends with revolutionary Dr. Paul Farmer, the subject of Mountains Beyond Mountains (he'll be speaking at UCSB October 22.)

Haiti matters for more reasons than I have time to list here. So does poverty. Hastings answer to her own question, Is eradicating global poverty really achievable?: "I don't know. But we have to keep trying." Woohoo, Anne!

And speaking of the Food Bank, tickets are on sale now for the best soup in town at Empty Bowls on Sunday, November 4. See you there!

Goldilocks Hates Slow Food

2007-09-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

and so do I.

While I love what the Slow Food movement represents, the term "Slow Food" sticks in my craw. Slow Food is, of course, a reaction against fast food and fast food culture. What's the opposite of fast food? Slow food. Hahahahaha.

What's wrong with fast food? Well, if you're reading this blog, you probably know already—f you don't know, Fast Food Nation is a good place to start. No question, it's bad stuff. Global, cultural, individual pollution.

So I hate that Slow Food defines itself in relation to fast food. I also feel like fast food is a problem because it is so extremely large, extremely corporate, extremely cheap, extremely fast—so extremely extreme. But is the correct response another extreme? That's what the term "Slow Food" implies to me. You're for us or against us. Fast food or Slow Food. What about Just Right Food?

I feel like maybe it's important to guard against extremism in food culture the same way we do in religion or politics. Just Right Food allows you to make informed choices. Do what you can. Can if you can. If you aren't spending the last days of summer canning heirloom tomatoes from your own garden, THAT'S OKAY. If you use a can opener, you are not a traitor to The Movement. Occasionally choosing convenience shouldn't mean exile to the Dark Side, but that's what I think of when I hear the term Slow Food. The phrase is like a Sicilian grandmother chastising me for cutting corners and spitting on her traditions, wagging a boney finger beneath her black mantilla, uttering curses...

I prefer to focus on an idea that nurtures me like a good meal. I love the term "locavore" a lot—it implies community, appetite, and a little silliness. As much as I love the Slow Food Movement, I wish we could call it something else.

I Can't Believe It's Not Toxic!

2007-09-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

The Jiffy Pop Tavern is safe from the Zaca Fire and hungry for business, but the ConAgravation theme continues.

As "news," we learn a guy in Colorado who eats lots of microwave popcorn developed lung disease. Fact is, this diacetyl disease isn't news at all.

C'mon. Is it really a surprise that microwave popcorn might have some scary stuff in it? Didn't folks notice that if the bag is microwaved for a few extra seconds, black acrid smoke-demons begin seeping from the bag? Do folks just shrug that off as an artificial "smoke-like fragrance"? It takes an exorcism to get that smell out.

It's not news. It's ConAgra. ConAgra has been poisoning its workers with scary, buttery toxins for a long time.

ConAgra Foods Inc, maker of Orville Redenbacher and Act II microwave popcorn brands, said Wednesday it will drop diacetyl from its butter-flavored microwave popcorn in the "near future" to safeguard its employees....The additive, which gives microwave popcorn a buttery taste, has long been linked with a rare lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, found in plant workers.

Oh. "Plant workers." Whew. I was worried people might have been in danger. Now that a consumer has been diagnosed with the "popcorn plant disease," there will be immediateish changes:

ConAgra spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said that after months of deliberations [!] the company now expects to remove diacetyl "within a year" to protect employees who are exposed to large amounts of the additive.

"We made that decision in order to provide our employees with the safest work environment possible, but also to eliminate even the perception of concern for consumers," Childs said in a telephone interview.

Don't worry, Ms. Childs. We have no such perceptions.

A silver lining?

2007-08-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

Just in case, fire crews are wrapping Cold Springs Tavern in a protective foil wrapping. That way, if the Zaca Fire begins racing toward the pass, the historic building will be protected.

For some reason, I can't stop picturing the owner returning after the fire burns through to find the foil-wrapped tavern has expanded to twice its original size, and huge puffs of popcorn are spilling out of the doors and windows. Imagine the salty, butterish aroma!

Curse you, Jiffy Pop... I hate what you've done to me...

Are You There God? It's Me, Gloria

2007-08-04T10:34:00.001-07:00

Big news here at the ranch... our little chick is now a hen. Gloria laid her first egg this morning. It's tiny, about the size of a quail egg, and a lovely teak brown. So cute!

One of the exciting things about raising eggs here is the variety—so much more interesting than a foam carton of identical orbs from Death Star Farms. The Orpintons' eggs are chai-ish: some just off-white, some almost cafe au lait. When the little araucanas start laying, their eggs will range from ceylon green to china blue. Pictured here (from front to back): a quarter, Gloria's first egg, an Angie egg, an Ethel egg. Ethel's eggs are about 30% bigger than Angie's—much larger than the typical grocery store egg. BIG.

In fact, I've learned that sometimes Ethel's eggs are too big. For example: a pasta recipe that asks for "three eggs" needs less than two Ethel eggs. I'm learning to trust my instincts as a cook, recipes be damned.

It will be a few more months before Gloria lays regularly enough for us to recognize her "type" of eggs—for now, we'll just know they're the little ones. And try to stop strolling around singing, Urge Overkill style: "Chick (ba bom bom bom) you'll be a layer soon..."

"Welcome to Santa Barbara Airport... D'oh!"

2007-08-02T22:12:00.000-07:00

I'm here today as the animated Queen Whackamole, voicing my support of the Light Blue Line Project. There has been a lot of debate about the City Council's choice to spend $12,000 dollars on painting this line—a line indicating Santa Barbara's coastline changed by the (conservatively) predicted seven-meter rise. That is: this is where your kids will want to put their beach towels to watch your grandkids or great-grandkids play...

Scientists don't know precisely when it will get here, but we know it's coming, by trickle or flood. As Bill McKibben argues in his 1989 (almost 20 years ago!) book The End of Nature, climate change means that nothing is known anymore... we're well into "best guess" territory. It's not new information we're getting now (McKibben certainly can't be accused of "greenwashing" in 1989)—we're just finally getting the old information, or kinda getting it. I don't think any of us can really comprehend how much change is ahead. I know I can't. Easier to cross that bridge when we come to it. The future will have lots of bridges: structural, emotional, cultural, economic...

Really, compared to all we don't know, the amount of sea-level rise is a relative sure thing. I don't think of the Light Blue Line as art—I think of it as information.

The value will come if we are able to act on that information. While almost all leaders now admit that global warming exists, they can't seem to incorporate this information into their planning. They say they get it, yet in their actions climate change is nothing but a theory, a remote possibility.

We need to hold our leaders accountable, and give them support, for making difficult and unpopular decisions that recognize the reality ahead. We should be questioning why the airport is being expanded in its current location, on reclaimed wetland that is highly vulnerable to changing sea levels. From afar, we in Santa Barbara can click our tongues as FEMA provides funding for folks to rebuild in Midwest flood plains year after year... we can question the wisdom of rebuilding a sinking New Orleans... but what we really need to do is recognize that change is happening, change will impact us, and the sooner we start responding, the easier our task will be.

Wow. When I get animated, I really get animated! I'm off to Moe's.

A tip of the animated iceberg to both George & Amy...

Jelly time!

2007-08-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last night we visited the gorgeous (and surprisingly unsmokey) Alisal Guest Ranch in Solvang, where members of the extended Whackamole family are enjoying ranch living for a week. My brother-in-law greeted us with a margarita, which we sipped by the pool. Turns out, I would be an awesome cattle rancher: I like pools AND margaritas!

Anyway, we heard of their many guest ranch adventures: archery class, five-star dining, breakfast rides, and catch-and-release bass fishing were just a few of them. Alisal Ranch has a private lake, with a pier, paddle boats, and jellyfish. Um, yeah. Jellyfish, the size of a nickel. Swarms of them.

I'd never heard of freshwater jellyfish. How cool!

So, in the labyrinth of government agencies, it turns out that the U.S. Geological Survey keeps track of Non-native Aquatic Species (motto:"Putting the NAS back in NASTY"), including freshwater jellyfish. It turns out, if you flip a freshwater jellyfish over, you will be able to read "MADE IN CHINA" on the bottom.

Reading about these freshwater jellies—Craspedacusta sowerbyi, indigenous to China's Yangtze River valley—it doesn't sound like they're dangerous. They can sting, in theory, but their sting is not powerful enough to be felt by swimmers, in theory. (There are some things I'm just not interested in testing.) Scientists don't know much about them really, but they don't seem to harm local fish or have much effect on local ecosystems. Ah, sweet ignorance...

Jellyfish are fascinating. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has an awesome exhibit of jellies, and I spent most of a day mesmerized by little living lava lamps. I wish they had a jelly cam. I wish I could have a tankful of jellies at home. Unfortunately, jellyfish are pretty difficult to keep. Apparently, the freshwater jellyfish are no easier.

Plus, as much as I love jellyfish in the ocean or in aquariums, I'm unnerved by the little creatures suddenly appearing in a local pond. It ain't natchrell. Freshwater jellyfish, indeed. What's next? Sharks in Lake Cachuma?

Picture from the IUP Jellyfish Research Site

P.S. It's not your imagination. Birds really do sing when you visit the Alisal web site. Not that I was fooled at all...

Time to make some granola!

2007-07-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

Via Eat Local Challenge.

First the News-Press, now this?

2007-07-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

Many, many years before becoming a News-Press subscriber, I fell in love with the gray, pulpy paper and the grainy photography of the black and white tabloids. I bore the inky smudges on my hands like a badge of honor, and proudly papered my high-school locker with articles clipped from my favorite paper.

Over a year has gone by since I cancelled my News-Press subscription. As much as I loved the paper it was, I don't know that I treasured any of the articles the way I cherished those early clippings from the Weekly World News. It was in the Weekly World News I first learned to fear mermaids. It provided the only reliable source of political critique from the extraterrestrial perspective. News that mattered.

I still mourn the loss of my morning News-Press, the lesser of my journalistic loves. Dark vales of regret cast shadows on the road ahead of me as I learn that the Weekly World News is ceasing publication.

Woe is me. Thank you, Marty, for letting me know that our dear friend WWN is fading out of print, hiding in exile online. I like to think that there's a little Bat Boy inside each of us, plotting a triumphant return.

That sinking feeling

2007-07-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

Bus riders are a captive audience, a fact that has not escaped the MTD. Posters line inside of each bus. Some are advertisements, many are public service type ads, often in Spanish, clearly targeting lower income riders: "Stay in School," "discount health services available at...," "Bargain Network has great benefits for single moms," etc. Myself, I'm partial to the posters with local kids' poems...

And then there's this one (with apologies for the poor quality phonetography):

The text is "What You Buy Today... Was On A Ship Yesterday" and "Moving Ships...Drives America's Economy"

Huh?

I'm having a hard time with the logic behind this ad. And who would sponsor such an odd message? I figured it must be the Ship Captains' Union, Order of the Ancient Mariner, or maybe the Pirate's Club.

But hey, it's Uncle Sam! Specifically, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Apparently from the Committee to Encourage Consumption of Imported Stuff. Golly, what could be more American than that?

Actually, I can think of quite a few things. Buying less, buying local, and buying American all spring to mind. What the heck is this campaign really about? Is this an effort to spread some good PR after all the damning reports that showed how much ships contribute to smog in our area?

Does anyone have any theories?

The Missing Link

2007-07-13T09:00:00.001-07:00

We're sorry to see Santa Barbara Newsroom disappear from the list of Fuller Headlines. I know it's not to supposed to feel like they're giving up, but... it kinda feels like they're giving up. We've appreciated SB Newsroom during it's brief life, and we'll miss it.

Who to Woohoo Wednesday: Dave!

2007-07-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

Wednesday is supposed to be about the good. Today started badly, as I checked in for my daily Edhat News and read about a savage attack on a pet tortoise. It was one of those "What kind a sick world do we live in?!?" mornings.

As I headed to lunch with my pal Dave, I remembered Woohoo Wednesday. I remembered I was supposed to find some good. Ugh. But I realized, as I was walking with Dave, that we were didn't have to look far. Right in Dave's hands were ceramic bowls for our lunch.

The BYOB-Bring Your Own Bowl Campaign is something Dave and I have talked about for awhile. It grew out of our observation that despite the abundance of cheap student labor (read: dishwashers), University Meals are served on plastic or styrofoam. All the food at the UCen, the Arbor, the Coral Tree, even the brand new Courtyard Cafe--all served on a little slice of petroleum. The Faculty Club is an exception, and I don't know about the residence halls, but for a "green campus" the amount of waste in food services is pretty appalling. I did hear a rumour that the Office of Sustainability was considering biodegradible plates, etc... but face it, those may save a little landfill, but they still require resources in production, distribution, etc. For some reason, the "disposable is better" seems to have spread through much of Isla Vista as well, including one of my favorite places, Naan Stop.

The idea to BYOB isn't entirely without precedent--lots of people bring their own mugs to coffee shops, and I have a reusable Blenders mug at home and at the office (I cringe--and maybe drool--a little to think of how many styrofoam Blenders cups I've thrown away over the years).

So, today, my pal Dave walked up to the guy at Naan Stop and handed him a ceramic bowl, and asked for his lunch to be served in the bowl. Naan Man was confused at first--suggesting that we get our lunch in their styrofoam bowls then pour it into our own bowls, but when Dave explained that the goal was to avoid using and wasting the throwaway bowl, Naan Man finally got it. He dished up some delicious food--I swear it tasted even better than usual.

So here's to Dave, for following through on BYOB, and making a difference every chance he gets. Woohoo Dave!

Help.

2007-07-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

Help. That's all that comes to mind, reading about the kidnap and mutilation of a pet tortoise last weekend. I can't stop thinking about how easy it must have seemed to torture a mute animal, one that doesn't scream or yelp, though he certainly struggled.

It was broad daylight. There were witnesses, and more than one assailant. The witnesses are coming forward now, calling the sheriff to report what they saw.

I'm so furious, it takes effort to keep typing. You know what Bob needed more than witnesses after the fact? He needed HELP, someone to shout out that it's wrong to stab a living creature, wrong to drop him, wrong to roll him down a hill. He needed someone to call the sheriff as is happened, not days later.

HELP, people. HELP.

African spur-thighed tortoises are social creatures, more than one might expect. Bob was social enough to coax an autistic child to communicate with the outside world--I suppose a "coming out of his shell" image really works here. I've been lucky enough to share a home with a tortoise like Bob for 14 years. The idea of someone trying to pry him out of his shell, slice off his head and legs... I hardly know what to do with these feelings. One little thing I can do is help Bob's family, the Sullivans, with their veterinary expenses. Generously, Jeanie Vaughan of Turtle Dreams is covering Bob's immediate expenses with a loan, which the Sullivans will pay back. I guess writing a check is all I can do to help. But it doesn't make me any less angry.

Bob Sullivan
c/o Turtle Dreams
2298 Feather Hill Road
Montecito, CA 93108-1542

Carless Whispers: Week 1

2007-06-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

A week ago today, I parked the Whackamole chariot. Since then, I haven't driven. I've been in a car twice: the man drove to a party in Ventura, and we made a trip to Island Seed & Feed to stock up with almost 100 lbs of various seeds and feeds.

We did manage to wobble home from the co-op with an enormous load strapped onto the racks after finding Straus milk and a bulk bag of triticale on sale... but I see a bike trailer in our future.

We did a combo trip to the downtown Farmer's Market on Tuesday, biking 3 1/2 miles to the University to catch the express bus rather than walking 1 1/2 miles to catch the stop-a-block bus. It worked out nicely--we rode the bus with Joaquin Phoenix!

Last night, I hoped to further research in local beer at the Hollister Brewing Co. I also needed some supplies for a painting project, and figured I could get what I needed at Home Depot. The man had taken a loooong bike ride, but gamely agreed to walk up the the bus stop to Camino Real. We strolled past the flower fields, arrived at the stop around 7:30 to find the bus we wanted stopped running an hour earlier. Crud.

The alternative meant following the only route still running to UCSB and transferring to a second bus. Bleh.

By walking another half a mile, we had more options at the Hollister and Kellogg stop, so we walked. Phooey. That bus had also stopped running for the night. Heck, it wasn't even 8:00! Ugh.

We ditched our plans. No beer. No ceiling scraper.

After grabbing a bite at the Habit, we finally caught a bus: the 11, which drove us a half mile back to Goleta Valley Hospital. We walked home. It was a lot of adventure for a little dinner. So, this first week of Carless Whispers ended with a few Carless Grumbles.

I've been thinking a lot about setting up a formal carfree challenge. I think there would need to be a little wiggle room, for the occassional party in Ventura, for example. I also imagine an exception for carpooling in unbussable, unbikeable situations. What else?

Speaking of, Antara is performing at Cold Springs Tavern as part of the Gates & Goodell CD release party this Friday from 7-10 pm. Anyone interested in driving?

Happy Birthgiving Day to me!

2007-06-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

And happy birthday to Princess Whackamole Del Fuego, who will be happy to know we haven't gotten any goats during her absence. Yet.

Glad fødselsdag, kid!

Live simply, drink locally

2007-06-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

I like big beers, and I cannot lie. We've been trying to eat local foods lately, out of our own yard when possible, so for happy hour, I had this idea to serve some local beer. Lots of smaller breweries don't bottle six-packs, so it was the perfect excuse to open sample some big bottles with friends.

I found a good selection of Island Brewing Company ales at the Isla Vista Co-op. They had other beer and wine, including some from Stone Brewery in my hometown San Diego. I've heard George and Amy raving about Stone for years, so I grabbed a few of those. I found local Telegraph's California Ale at nearby Angelo's Liquor. When George added two amazing growlers from Hollister Brewing (Fairview Farmhouse Ale and what else?), we had a nice sampling of our local beers.

I have to say, the growler from Hollister was the coolest bottle of beer I've ever seen. A growler, I learned, is a half-gallon bottle that allows you to take home draught beers from smaller breweries that may not be bottling. You just get yourself a growler, and they fill it from their tap. The Hollister growler is a rounded glass jug that looks like it holds a magical healing elixir. And it kinda does.

We fashioned a blind tasting of sorts by covering the labels and sampling from nine different brews. It wasn't very scientific, and to be honest, I don't know that anyone other than George and Amy would have been prejudiced by the labels.

This time, the Stone beers were the first to go, in part because I had to uncap them first to preserve anonymity. Next time, no blind: the bottles go naked, labels exposed. I wish I'd tasted more side by side, pale ale to pale ale, to really get a sense of each type and brand of beer. As much as I enjoy beer, I don't really know much about it. An optometrist-style beer tasting would probably work best for me: "Do you prefer A or B? Okay, B or C?" I propose we undertake further research.

In any case, it is a happy happy hour indeed when one can drink locally and enjoy summer evenings with one's favorite people in the company of one's own chickens. Happy summer, every one.

Oh meme, oh my!

2007-06-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

It's taken me awhile to get to the meme Amy tossed my way... but let's see if I can think of 8 Fun Facts about me...

Here's the "rules" (like the pirate code, they're more like guidelines):

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Okay, so, in the spirit of silliness, here we go...

1. Watching baby skunks nibble on grass makes me blissfully happy.
2. I am extremely lucky, especially at electric bike raffles, but jinx electric car raffles.
3. Neo-cons dig my poetry. I donate their checks to Planned Parenthood.
4. The first time I went to college I planned to major in wildlife management. The college also offered a degree in fish hatchery management.
5. I starred as Dorothy in our fourth-grade production of The Wizard of Oz. Since I didn't have any red shoes, I wore red socks. Unfortunately, it was filmed in black and white. It still bugs me that I didn't think of just wearing some other color of fancy shoes—who would have known?
6. I may be Thomas Paine's great-great-great-great-great granddaughter.
7. Mermaids scare me. A lot. Seriously.
8. I've won awards for training a pit bull, for proposing to convert an oil rig into a casino, and for keeping my temper.

I'm gonna reach out and tag locals Cookie Jill, Craig Smith (in case there's a lull in the News-Press drama), the Garden Wise Guy, and Noelle Aguayo.
I'm also going to reach out across the blogsphere to some dedicated folks I've been admiring, in case they want to play a little: Greenpa over at Little Blog in the Big Woods, Phelan at Homesteading Neophyte, my heroes over at Path to Freedom, and Emme at Simple Living (check out the Riot for Austerity 90% Emission Reduction Challenge she's got going!).

H-E-double hockey sticks!!!

2007-06-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

Who to Woohoo Wednesday: SB MTD

2007-06-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

Princess Whackamole is departing for the arctic circle, leaving the ranch a little colder for the next month. While she's gone, I'm hanging up my chauffeur hat. In fact, I'm going to take it a step further: I've challenged myself to go car-free.

Coincidentally, June 21 is SB MTD's "Dump the Pump Day," according to an ad I'm seeing in the Daily Sound. What is Dump the Pump Day? Doesn't look like we get a free ride, but it's a little gimmick that can get folks talking about the bus. I don't find any details about Dump the Pump on the Metropolitan Transit District website, but that's not gonna stop me from giving the SB MTD a woohoo. The fact that the 24X left us waiting at the UCSB stop after leaving a FULL FIVE MINUTES ahead of schedule last week compromises the woohoo, but all in all, I believe that the MTD needs all the positive reinforcement we can offer.

Apparently the point of Dump the Pump is that mass transit reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, and I'm all for that. I'm also impressed that MTD has added hybrid buses to its fleet and has added more frequent stops. I also like that for the most part our buses feel clean and safe.

On my wish list? I'd love to see more free bus days, to encourage more people to try the bus. For example--to put it in terms a blogger can relate to--"Free Ride Friday." I also wish the bike racks were a little bigger; our electric bikes don't fit. There are also times when the bike racks are full, and bikers have to wait for the next bus. And it would be nice if there were more neighborhood bus stops, so we didn't have to hike over a mile to catch a ride. I know, I know... there's a lot of chicken and egg problem with bus planning. Which comes first, the routes or the riders?

Our bus system is a critical part of making Santa Barbara sustainable. It ain't as easy as driving, it ain't sexy, but you get to stare out the window at the beautiful planet you're helping to save. If you're not ditching your car at least once a week, why not?

Is anyone else interested in a little car-free challenge?

Blogthing #1: Me as a Wine

2007-06-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

You Are Sauvignon Blanc

Engaging and energetic, you have a lot to offer the world - most of it they've never seen anywhere else!
You are the type of person who carves your own path in life... and you invite everyone else to come along.
The only thing predictable about you is that you could have anything up your sleeve.
You're all about sampling all of life's experiences. Both the savory and unsavory ones.

Deep down you are: Laid back and young at heart

Your partying style: Anything goes... seriously!

Your company is enjoyed best with: Smoked meats [or SEITEN! yay!] or spicy food

What Kind of Wine Are You?

Thanks to Blogthings, Friday blogging just got a whole lot easier.

Smelt: a little fishy

2007-06-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

Update on the fish kill: I received calls back this afternoon from our local Fish & Game warden and the inspector at Environmental Health Services. Willy Brommett at EHS was able to go take a look. He said the lovely silver fish are smelt, confirming what Pierhead said, and that they may have jumped into the slough during the very high tide last night. Once there, they became trapped and suffocated in the slough. A very sad ending for such shiny creatures, but a boon for the local seabirds. Thanks to Willy Brommett for continuing Environment Health Services woohooable streak.

Meanwhile, our game warden called to say that he is in Cuyuma today and wouldn't be able to check it out. I appreciated his call, but have to admit to being troubled by the singular "warden." We only have one in Santa Barbara County? Yow. So, I guess today's a good day to go poaching on the south coast... add Fish & Game to the underfunded list...

R.I.P. smelts.

Column A! Column A!

2007-06-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

glumbert.com - The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See

Why do so many folks keep on insisting that climate change is a complex problem, that we need more information before we take action? Do we really need more time to answer this one?

Boil, boil, toil and trouble

2007-06-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

Riding to UCSB along the Obern Trail—especially on my electric bike—is usually a relaxing and centering commute. Rabbits and squirrels run along the trail, and the area along Atascadero Creek, past San Jose Creek, Goleta Slough and the beach is home to blue herons, egrets, coots, mallards, kingfishers, redwing blackbirds, and dozens of other species... this morning I even saw a robin. Unusual for this area.

Unfortunately, that's not all I saw.

In fact, I heard it before I saw it, on the bridge over San Jose Creek. Hundreds of silver fish bubbling to the surface, writhing and dying.

[June 15 edit: I thought the link below would make clear that I found this picture online. I didn't take it myself. I didn't have a camera with me. The picture above was not taken at San Jose Creek, but a similar phenomenon elsewhere, with small fish dying in large numbers.]

When I got to my office, I started making calls. I'm happy to report that our government is still funding answering machines. Lots of 'em. I called the direct line to Goleta Beach Park, the general line for SB Parks, as well as three separate numbers for California Fish and Game before I reached a helpful dispatcher in Sacramento, who may have better luck than I had in contacting our local game warden.

I also called the Goleta Sanitary District, since their plant is right there. They were responsive to my concerns (thanks, Jeff), and also referred me to Environmental Health Services, where Rick Muirfield (Sorry, guessing at the spelling) took the time to listen, confirm details, and send an agent to check it out. So, I don't feel too much like woohooing about this whole situation, but it is Wednesday, so I dedicate this Who to Woohoo Wednesday to Rick, with sincere thanks.

Massive die-offs like this are called "fish kills." They are most often caused by a lack of oxygen in the water, which is most often caused by rapid algae growth, which is most often caused by excessive proteins in the water, which is most often caused by agricultural run-off, including synthetic fertilizers used in residential landscaping.

Fortunately, factory farms aren't a problem here, but consider where I found the picture above yet another reason to avoid those big-ag eggs.

Up, up with people...

2007-06-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: The reasoning and/or engineering skillz in this post are solely those of Queen Whackamole, and do not represent the fuller Fuller & Fuller skill set.

I'm generally a stair-taker, and have been for most of my life, rarely one to pass up the opportunity to burn a few extra calories. More stairs now = more beer later. Of course, there's the added benefit of saving energy by not using the elevator. So, several times each workday, I walk up four flights of stairs to my lair, burning calories, saving energy...

So, as I'm walking up the stairs, it occurs to me: what goes up, must come down. If it takes energy to take the elevator up, can it possibly require equal energy both directions? I don't think so.

It seems like it must take more energy for the elevator to lift a load than to drop it. And lifting a heavier load takes more energy than lifting a light load: Taking six people to the third floor is more work than taking one. So... here's the big question... is taking six people DOWN three floors LESS work than taking one? If I add my mass to the equation, is the elevator working less than it would without me?

What do you think? Obviously, I wouldn't want to call the elevator up to get me, but if it is already here... Is it better to go down in the elevator? (privacy concerns aside—speaking purely in terms of energy usage)

Which brings up the thought: Could elevators be designed like regenerative braking systems, so that the energy generated on the way down is stored for later trips up? Seems like. For all I know, they already are.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

2007-06-07T07:37:00.001-07:00

Monster Solar MADNESS! (RSVP to get in FREE, otherwise you gotta pay SBMNH admission: solarsunday@sbnature2.org)

Want to learn more about solar power? Come to Solar SUNday!

When? Sunday, June 10, 11am to 5pm
Where? SB Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol

Enjoy an afternoon filled with solar power education, including a solar trade show, hourly workshops with solar experts, a screening of the short film "Buying a Solar Electric System," children's activities, and energy-saving prize drawings throughout the day.

Workshop Schedule:
11:00 am - Energy Efficiency: Your First Step
presented by South Coast Energy Efficiency Partnership
12:00 pm - California Solar Initiative
presented by South Coast Energy Efficiency Partnership
1:00 pm - Solar on Your Home or Business
presented by Don Campbell, California Solar Electric Company
2:00 pm - Solar Design Aesthetics and Passive Solar Guidelines
presented by Heather Baker, City of Santa Barbara
3:00 pm - The Future of Solar
presented by Tam Hunt, Community Environmental Council

Workshop topics include: energy efficiency, solar for your home or business, the California Solar Initiative, solar design aesthetics and passive solar guidelines, and the future of solar energy. Presenters include representatives from local government, local solar installers, and CEC staff.

There is no cost for this event, but you must RSVP to receive free admission to the SB Museum of Natural History on Sunday, June 10.

It's the Debating Game!

2007-06-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

Way back when I was a young Whackamole, I remember watching presidential debates without CNN's logo plastered all over the backdrop. In fact, in those days, there was (gasp!) no CNN. No C for that matter. Alas, the line between politics and marketing was smeared away long ago, and I'm not just talking about corporate sponsors of our presidential debates—I'm talking about the candidates.

I've often heard that if debates were televised in 1860, Lincoln wouldn't have been elected. After watching the debates this week, I can't help feeling that if America is really going to choose a president based on their mad game-show skillz rather than experience and policy, let's just be honest about it and add some tried-n-true gameshow techniques to level the playing field. For example:

"Contestent #1...": So that candidates can be given equal time and consideration by the moderator, the moderator might address each candidate from behind a screen, without knowing which candidate is being addressed, like The Dating Game.
"Phone a Friend": We're not electing a president—we're electing an administration. The candidates' advisors are just as important, maybe MORE important, than the individual. We're electing a team, not just a captain. So let's let all of 'em be involved in the debate.
Audience Polling: Let the folks at home cast their votes. I'm curious to know how other people respond, other than the studio audience in New Hampshire. I want one of those cool real-time, on-screen polls! Hey, maybe like that horse race game they have at the carnival! Or maybe that's going too far...
and wasn't there another game show where even the audience couldn't see who was answering the questions? What was that one? I love the idea of choosing a candidate based on his or her ideas and experience rather than looks... or am I just behind the times?

Maybe today's leader needs to look like a leader, needs to display well, needs to soundbyte with precision... maybe the marketing does matter. Maybe, but I hope not.

Suddenly on my radar...

2007-05-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

I'd been planning to support Obama, but his stance on global warming has been absolutely underwhelming. Then John Edwards seemed like the guy. But check out Bill Richardson's kick-ass energy plan:

* Cut oil demand: 50% by 2020
We must reduce oil imports from around 65% to 10%. We can reach these goals in part by getting the 100 mile per gallon (mpg) car into the marketplace, pushing fuel economy standards to 50 mpg by 2020, and setting a life-cycle low-carbon fuel standard that reduces the carbon impact of our liquid fuels by 30% by 2020, including increasing use of alternative fuels.
* Change to renewable sources for electricity: 50% by 2040
I am calling for a national renewable electricity source portfolio standard of 30% by 2020 – which will rise to 50% by 2040. This is aggressive, but necessary as we start using more electricity for automobiles. I will push for an energy productivity law requiring a 20% improvement in energy productivity by 2020. We could easily save customers $21 billion a year by 2020. Also, my market-based cap and trade program for greenhouse gas emissions will create incentives for the electric and industrial sectors to make significant reductions in their carbon emissions.
* Dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions: 90% by 2050
20% by 2020, and 80% by 2040 -- ten years faster than scientists say is necessary, because we must lead the world, and we can’t afford the possibility of backsliding and inaction. We will start with a market-based cap and trade system. Economists say the world can protect itself from drastic climate change at a cost of 1-3% of our economic activity. We can afford to protect the climate. Given the risks of catastrophic climate change, we can’t afford not to.
* Lead by example and restore America as the world’s leader
We must return to the international negotiating table and support mandatory world-wide limits on global warming pollution. We will work closely with fast-growing nations and, as President, I will cooperate with the European Union, the World Bank, and other allies to help finance the incremental cost of “doing it right.” I will create a North American Energy Council with Mexico and Canada, which supply about 20% of our oil, and make sure our relations with these neighbors are firm and friendly. As we reduce our demand for foreign oil, we should work with the Persian Gulf nations, and our partners in consuming nations and the United Nations Security Council, to try to create a multilateral system for protecting the Gulf so that within ten years the U.S. presence there could be sharply and safely reduced.
* Get it all done without breaking the bank
We will raise some revenue from the sales of carbon permits, for example. Further, I will get out the “green scissors” to cut back on wrongly-placed tax subsidies. Over time, this program will yield huge productivity increases in our economy, as well as significant budget savings and revenues. We will create more than 10 times as much value in the American economy by reducing our oil imports as we spend to make this program happen.

I think I'm ready to make my first campaign donation of the year.

Who to Woohoo Wednesday: Chris Jordan

2007-05-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

We spent part of Mother's Day having a good debate about responsibility in the media, specifically conservative talk radio's attitude toward climate change. Based on the facts we have today, it feels criminal to me that those in a position of power and influence are actively discouraging change with the same ol' "only leftist hippies worry about carbon emissions" crapola. The time for scepticism is over. In my opinion, treating climate change like a "hoax" (in the words of one of their allies) is far more deserving of censure than calling a few basketball players names. Really, the stakes could not be any higher. Spreading misinformation like they do is, at best, criminal negligence. I don't feel I'm exaggerating when I say those guys are threatening my life... hell, they're threatening LIFE. Yep, I got a little worked up about it. Sorry, Mom.

It's just that we are strong believers in the superhero creed: Use your powers for good. They don't. However, Sara over at Walk Slowly, Live Wildly introduced me to Chris Jordan, specifically his series "Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait":

This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.

So, hooray! So good to see someone using his powers for good! Woohoo, Chris Jordan! Take a look at his site--it was a little slow to load on my computer, but worth it.

And belated Happy First Mother's Day to Noelle Aguayo. Woohoo Moms!

Amen, brother.

2007-05-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

The distinguished gentleman at Big Table sets a place for Paul Hawken.

Well said, Patrick. More about Paul Hawken on Grist today...

Miles to go before we sleep.

2007-05-15T06:57:00.000-07:00

I would love to say that we dipped our toes into the Pacific before beginning our drive, and that three days later we dipped them in the Atlantic. In reality, we weren't thinking about symbolism and ritual as we left, and by the time we got to our destination, about 80 miles from the Atlantic, 80 miles seemed like a long way to drive for a metaphor. But we could have.

15 states in seven days. And not those teeny New England states, either: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and back through Texas, New Mexico, Texas, New Mexico (yeah, the road loops around that way), Arizona, California.

We're more tired than a 22-wheeler, but we're back at the ranch. There's so much I want to write about: whacky weather, bat caves, cheap land, pentecostals, carbon offsets, recycling at truck stops, books on tape, billboards, gator ponds, walmarts, la migra... but it's enough right now to battle the ghost of the highway. Our bodies are so used to feeling that steady surge of the truck that now we're like sailors trying to get our land legs back.

On her recent trip, Amy found smashed pandas. Our drive was like a visit to Wes Craven's Natural History Museum, a gory display of North America fauna. It was especially sad and fascinating to see a puma by the side of road as the sun was rising in New Mexico. We also saw pronghorn antelope, white tailed deer, mule deer, badger, javelina, turtles, and one large creature that might have been a black bear. And of course a lot of little armadillos. Happily we didn't contribute to the mangled menagerie, and managed to make it home without snagging even a speeding ticket.

We are both tired and inspired.

Who to Woohoo Wednesday*: Paul Hawken

2007-05-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

Who to Woohoo Wednesday is all about focusing on what's going right, at least one day a week. Paul Hawken (he wrote the "critical mass" article I linked to earlier this week) is an activist and writer who's been focusing on what's going right every day for over a decade. His forthcoming book Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming will be released May 10, and he'll be in Santa Barbara, at the Lobero Theater, on May 14. It's a free event—thanks UCSB Arts & Lectures!

To quote Bill McKibben (something I seem to do an awful lot lately):

This is the first full account of the real news of our time, and it's exactly the opposite of the official account. The movers and shakers on our planet aren't the billionaires and the generals--they are the incredible numbers of people around the world filled with love for neighbor and for the earth who are resisting, remaking, restoring, renewing, revitalizing. This powerful and lovely book is their story—our story—and it's high time someone's told it. Nothing you read for years to come will fill you with more hope and more determination.

We talk a lot about addressing the climate crisis in the blogsphere (and happy hour barsphere), often debating the responsibility of government vs. individuals and questioning the effectiveness of legislation vs. grassroots change. In addition to writing and teaching, Hawken's work has included consulting with governments and corporations on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy, so I'm looking forward to his take on things... seems like he's spent time in both the government policy and grassroots worlds.

We'll be away from the ranch for a week or so, hopefully back in time to hear Paul Hawken in person on the 14th. While we're on the road, we hope to visit the folks at Greasel (I still want to call them Greasel, even if they've chosen to go with the new name Golden Fuel Systems) and learn more about running on WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) and revisit Violet, a small town outside New Orleans where I did some cleanup work last year.

*Thanks to the miracle of the Internets, as you'll notice by the timestamp on this post, I'm writing this yesterday!

Critical mass

2007-05-01T07:09:00.000-07:00

Maybe we're getting there...

Going too far

2007-05-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

Until recently, if I thought at all about imported foods it was generally with a historian's sense of wonder, imagining how emperors once sent armies to gather spices I can buy for a few bucks at the grocery store, or how exotic chocolate seemed to Europeans just a few hundred years ago. I think about letters from the Pioneering Whackamoles, how they craved fresh fruit during the winter months, and how rare it was to taste an orange. Then I walk outside, and grab a fresh tangelo right off the tree, thinking, This one's for you, Laura Ingalls...

I never, never, ever thought about the drawbacks of imported food until we started looking at climate change and carbon emissions. Not that we need to give up imported foods entirely, but they should be accents to a local meal. A dash of Indian saffron is a luxury; buying tomatoes from Chili is just irresponsible.

The growing eater's reading list—Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilema: A Natural History of Four Meals, Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, and Alissa Smith and JB Mackinnon's Plenty, to name a few—is fueling the fire for ideas like the 100-mile harvest and the Eat Local Challenge. Go, Locavores!

There's tons of stuff about this on the web—I have links to a few local sites on the right side of this post. A cool one is The 100-mile Diet: Local Eating for Global Change, which includes a super cool mapping feature. I learned that 100 miles from the ranch includes more possibilities than I expected. Maybe even local wheat, rice, or dairy!

And why did the chicken cross the country? Another awesome site, The Ethicurean, pecked out Culinate's article on Metro Chickens.

Yum... time for some huevos rancheros!

Free Coffee Sunday Night

2007-04-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

UCSB has been hosting an excellent Global Warming — Science & Society Event Series, which has featured James E. Hansen, Steve Koonin (which we missed), and Elizabeth "the rock star of climate change" Kolbert so far. The final lecture in the series is Bill McKibben, this Sunday night, April 29th, 7:00, UCSB Campbell Hall.

To summarize the series thus far: the message from Hansen and Kolbert was alarming: WAKE UP!

I sensed people leaving Kolbert's "Well, It's Even Worse Than It Was" lecture on the 19th slightly dazed, the way I am when the alarm goes off each morning. That "Ugh..." followed by "...now what?"

So, if Hansen and Kolbert were the alarm, I'm hoping McKibben will be the cup of coffee that actually gets us moving. His message is consistently action-oriented, what we can DO to make a difference and how we can move forward. Organizer of the recent STEP IT UP campaign, Bill McKibben is also author of Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (there's a good review at The Moral Equivalent of War), as well as The End of Nature, Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas, Mabye One: A Case for Smaller Families, and others, too—an activist's encyclopedia! Clearly there are many things we can do and choices we can make other than just following the glaciers to extinction.

Enough "Problem. Problem. Problem." Bring on the solutions! Bring on the McKibben!

And keep your hands off the snooze button.

Throw him OUT.

2007-04-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

I sent a message to Lois Capps encouraging her to consider Kucinich's resolution to impeach Cheney... if you have a moment, let her know what you think.

Who to Woohoo Wednesday: Mma. Ramotswe

2007-04-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

Who to Woohoo Wednesday is doing its job! I find myself focusing more on the people who are creating positive change in the world—and there are lots of them! The news is full of woohooables.

Yet I found myself thinking about Mma. Ramotswe today. Mma. Ramotswe is a lady detective in Botswana. Like me, she is married to a mechanic. She appreciates a cup of bush tea, a tidy home, and a well-swept yard. She loves her family, her community and her country, and works to make it better. She cultivates a simple, uncluttered life. Sure, she's a fictional character, but I appreciate her.

Face it: fictional characters are some of the most influential people in our culture. We meet them in books, movies, TV, music videos, or as the quasi-fictional personas adopted by celebrities. They may be fictional, but they are part of our communities. We invite them in, listen to what they have to say, study their responses, learn from their examples. We hear a lot about the impact screen violence has on kids, but we're all affected.

Here at the ranch, we don't usually hang with assassins, gangstas, or pimps... at least not intentionally. There's a lot of bling in fiction, a lot of consumerism and detached self-centeredness. A lot of characters have a kill-or-be-killed, I'm-gonna-get-mine ethic that leaves me feeling like I need a shower.

Mma. Romtswe leaves me feeling like I want to slow down, sit on the patio, and watch the chickens. It's a rare gift to feel calmer, less anxious, more centered, and that's what Mma. Romtswe brings to my world. Woohoo for that!

She's also on my mind because I was at the library yesterday and found a new No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency book. I swear it wasn't until I got home that I noticed the title: The Good Husband of Xebra Drive.

Honey, can we get a Xebra?

2007-04-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

Here at the ranch, we love cars and we hate what driving them does to our planet. Our best efforts with increased efficiency and biofuels reduce our impact, but don't solve the problem.

The best solution, it seems to me, is an electric car that runs on solar. Unfortunately, the electric car has been killed, at least for now, unless you have $100,000 to spend. There are the so-called Neighborhood Electric Vehicles, which are basically golf carts with a 25 mph maximum speed. The speed is restricted because NEVs are exempt from auto safety features like seat belts and air bags. (It's worth considering that although airbags and solid bumpers and side-impact bars make cars safer, they also make the car much, much heavier, and much less fuel efficient.) NEVs are ideal for planned communities, senior parks, and UCSB uses them for campus maintenance crews. Alas, not a good fit for Fuller & Fuller. 25 mph is just tooooo slow, even for Santa Barbara streets.

I thought I was out of options. Until I saw the Xebra.

At $10,000, the Xebra is incredibly affordable by EV standards. Classified as a motorcycle for DMV/DOT purposes (though no, you don't have to wear a helmet), it side-steps the 25 mph limit on NEVs and goes 40+ mph, with a range of 25 miles on a charge, 40 miles per day. In the same class as the single passenger $25,000 Myers NmG, the four door, four passenger Xebra should be able to get us all downtown and back—though I was a little snug in the back seat during a test drive. Like the NEVs, the Xebra is missing a lot of the safety features we're used to in a car, but it is safer than a bicycle. The Xebra Xero has solar panels on the roof, so it replenishes its batteries all day.

The drawbacks? It's made in China, though imported by a California company. The safety issue is also a concern. Also, we have to consider that a new vehicle requires resources in its manufacture.

On the plus side: I want one. And right now, my beloved Santa Barbara Electric Bicycle Company is hosting Little Radio EV, which is as close to buying locally as we can get.

Should we? The comment board is open.

Reality? We're soaking in it!

2007-04-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

Hearing a lecture by Elizabeth Kolbert at UCSB last night was less relevation than reinforcement. Climate change is real, scary, and generally worse than we can imagine. Like starlight, the weather is we experience today isn't created today--it's been in the pipeline for years. So I guess we're getting better weather than we deserve right now. Future generations will be dealing with the consequences of our actions. There is a point of no return, where the environment will begin a death spiral, at least as far as humans are concerned. We may be too late already, but there may be still opportunities to avoid catastrophe. Only hindsight will show where exactly it was. Our best hope is change NOW: real, immediate, individual now, not ten years in the future bureaucratic, political now.

There are lots of individual choices to be made. What we eat, what we buy, and how we drive are all opportunities to make a difference. I've been making an effort to drive less, and thinking in terms of a having at least one formal car-free day each week. I like Car Free Friday because I like alliteration. Plus, Friday is Happy Hour, and being car-free means I can be beer-full!

Fridays are also easier since I don't drive Princess Whackamole to school. Getting her to school has been the biggest challenge for me in going car-free. Safe routes to school are a Big Topic in Santa Barbara right now, especially since the tragic death of Jake Boysel. Jake was killed while riding his bike to school, despite being in a marked bike lane. I've written before about the chaos that is the high school drive. Even with the new stop sign, it's a zoo, or like a zoo would be if lemurs could drive. If there's anything scarier than driving near the school, it's biking or walking there. The closest bus stop is almost two miles from the ranch, so that's not a great option either. But I digress.

Yesterday was Thursday. I drove Princess Whackamole to school and myself to work. Drove home from work. Walked to the Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic read-a-thon, then we rode our bikes to hear Elizabeth Kolbert's lecture. I left feeling committed to my first Car Free Friday. We rode to the store before going back to the ranch. By the time we were riding home, it was almost 11 p.m. Almost Car Free Friday!

Then the rain came. And with it, snow on the hills, umbrellas, car keys, and a vision of Car Free Saturday. Or Sunday.

The best laid plans...

Who to Woohoo Wednesday: Ed

2007-04-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

I like noticing odd little things as I walk or bike around town. I like knowing the history of things around me. I like knowing why. I even like knowing how many. And I like to read things written by people who have fun writing.

So I love Edhat, with quirky trivia contests, Where Is It Wednesdays, dog of the week, veggie of the week, . Ed, the deadicated staff, and the Edhat dog all get a "Woohoo!" from the ranch. Yesterday, Edhat founder Peter Sklar received a commendation from the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors: "We, the supervisors, do heartily woohoo..."

I love what Edhat adds to our community. Especially since the implosion of the News-Press, Edhat forums have become a gathering place for casual news and commentary. Our community feels more democratic, more intimate, and more informed with Edhat. Not just the Edhat site, itself; I don't think it's much of a stretch to call Peter the godfather of Santa Barbara's blogging community. Or maybe more of a midwife of sorts. Or a dealer that gives you the first hit free, and leads to a sordid life of hardcore blogging.

Yeah, that's it. Thanks, Edhat. Woohoo!

Happy Tax Day!

2007-04-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

We Santa Barbarians have paid $157,500,000 for the war so far.

No wonder we can't afford to provide free buses...

In an "unrelated" story, 60 Santa Barbara teachers may be laid off... [upated 4/18]

The cilantro's as high as an elephant's eye

2007-04-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

What the heck to do with so much cilantro? Freeze it? Dry it? Can it?

The experiment is all about learning what to plant, how much to plant, where to plant... note to self: next time, a little less cilantro.

Bee very afraid

2007-04-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

The bees are disappearing from our lives. A whole chorus of bee sting survivors is shouting "Hooray! Good riddance!" But it's not that simple, honey.

Think of them as tiny little miners' canaries wearing striped jumpsuits. Not only are they lying feet-up, backs to the newspaper, whole hives are disappearing altogether. Before you shrug your shoulders and reach for the Splenda, think about how much of our food comes from plants or trees that depend on pollination by bees. No bees=no fruit, no coffee, no chocolate, no wine... It's leak, and land, without the ees.

It's a mystery. A scary one. No one is sure what happens to the disappeared bees, but a group of scientists is beginning to suspect cell phones. As sonar to whales and dolphins, so cell phones to bees: disorientation and death. If cell phones are the problem, goodness knows I'm part of it. Most of us are. I imagine Americans will be even less willing to reduce their cell phone use than they are are to reduce their driving. Then it's "So long, see ya, wouldn't wanna bee ya..."

Until then, we're hoping to create a bee sanctuary here at the ranch by planting more bee-licious, bee-lovely bee-tanicals. The bees love the bottle-brush hedge (as do the hummingbirds and other pollinators-click on the picture to see it full size, I'm kinda proud of it!). Berkeley hosts a buzzworthy site about developing urban bee gardens. Let's keep that fruit, coffee, chocolate, and wine coming! Oh, and honey, too.

Ah, those harebrained memes...

2007-04-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Esau for helping smooth away the last of the work week with this meme!

FOODOLOGY

Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. Annie's Shiitake & Sesame

Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. Naan Stop in Isla Vista

Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A. Blue Bayou at Disneyland!

Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. 20ish%. Or $2 per person (since we eat lots of cheap food)

Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick off of?
A. Seiten! (Ask me again in two weeks...)

Q. What is your favorite type of gum?
A. Whatever is minty and on sale.

TECHNOLOGY

Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. The man in his '60 Cadillac hearse

Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. Maybe a dozen, but only one works. Maybe we'll make the others into solar ovens...

BIOLOGY

Q. What’s your best feature?
A. My high pain tolerance.

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. A HUMAN! Princess Whackamole!

Q. Which of your five senses do you think is keenest?
A. Hearing. For example, those voices... hear them?

Q. When was the last time you had a cavity?
A. Two years ago.

Q. What is the heaviest item you lifted last?
A. A washing machine (with help, of course)

Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. Probably. Does anesthesia count? If so, definitely.

BULLSHITOLOGY

Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. Absolutely. I hate suspense.

Q. Is love for real?
A. Yep.

Q. If you could change your first name, what would you change it to?
A. Change, from Queen? I don't think so!

Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
A. Blue.

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. Yes. Sometimes not by mistake, too.

Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. I like to think so. I've certainly saved a lot of animals.

Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. Yes. And a lot of times, animals have saved me back.

DAREOLOGY

Q. Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000?
A. Sure!

Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. Can I spend some of the $100 on beer first?

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. No way.

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. Sure... I could outsource my blogging for cheap and come out way ahead.

Q. Would you pose nude in a magazine for $250,000?
A. No. I have a fear of being doodled on. If you know what I mean.

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000?
A. Sure! Unless it's all at once... again can I spend some of the $1,000 on beer first?

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. Do I get to choose which one? Like with lobsters?

Q. Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000?
A. No problem.

Q. Give up MySpace forever for $30,000?
A. No problem. Damn... I'm going to be soooo rich!!!

DUMBOLOGY

Q: What is in your left pocket?
A. Nothin.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A. I can't endorse anything that promotes throwing steak at llamas.

Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A. Some of both right now.

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A. Stand (ditto Esau's question)

Q: Could you live with roommates?
A. Hey! Offer me lots of money or I don't answer.

Q: How many pairs of flip-flops do you own?
A. Two.

Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A. I can't remember... I nodded at a sheriff on my way into Blenders on Wednesday...

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A. Empress Whackamole.

LASTOLOGY

Q: Friend you talked to?
A. The distinguished gentleman from Big Table.

Q: Last person you called?
A. My man.

RANDOMOLOGY

Q: First place you went this morning?
A. Patio door to release the hounds.

Q: What can you not wait to do?
A. Happy Hour!!!!

Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A. Bogart Beat the Devil

Q: Are you a friendly person?
A. Didn't I ask for a beer a few questions back? Where the heck is my beer???

Okay, I tag Noelle Aguayo, Big Table, and Flexible "It's been almost exactly a year since I last blogged" Planet. Happy Friday!

Stepping Up from the blogless fog

2007-04-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks were rough ones here at the ranch, as the regular reader of Fuller & Fuller may have noticed. So quickly did the blogless fog descend that this entry was left unfinished and unposted. So, here are belated thoughts on last month's news:

It seems that the message on global warming couldn't be much more simple or clear. We need to dramatically change our habits, particularly regarding our use of fossil fuels emissions, and we must do so NOW.

Congress is hearing lots about climate change issues this week, as Philip Cooney admits making hundreds of changes to scientific releases to bring them into line Al Gore addressing the panel today.

It's sad that this level of government corruption hardly raises the nation's eyebrow. Here you have a key advisor to the Bush administration, not conincidentally a playah in the American Petroleum Institute, claiming there's nothing wrong with "adjusting" scientists' press releases to bring them into line with administration policies.

Yes, there IS something wrong with that.

And that's where the fog hit...
So, last month's news, but maybe some encouragment to attend one of tomorrow's STEP IT UP events. Step It Up is intended to show our government that we want carbon cut 80% by 2050. There's an ice cube toss at Goleta beach from noon to 2:00. Anyone interested? It's a nice walk from the ranch...along the beach if the tide allows...

Who to Woohoo Wednesday: Colin Beavan

2007-04-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

or Stephen Colbert... They both rock.

I love what No Impact Man Colin Beavan is doing, and have mixed feelings about the attention he's getting for doing it. On the plus side: he's bringing the issue of consumerism into the spotlight. On the downside, does it make it seem that a low-impact lifestyle is part of the lunatic fringe? I don't know.

I suppose what I want is for the Colin Beavans of the world to become so commonplace as to be completely unnewsworthy. I want Colin Beavans to be the norm, not the exception... but since we're not there yet, woohoo Colin Beavan! and thanks to Noelle Aguayo for requesting more Woohoo Wednesdays.

Hey! Everybody out of the car pool!

2007-04-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

Getting Princess Whackamole to school has been a little more exciting than it should be. The traffic flow around high schools is notoriously problematic: new and student drivers, distracted parents on cell phones, all the predictable stuff. Now add to that the insurance industry's lobbying for new teen driving laws a few years back, including one that outlaws teen carpools. I imagine the intent was to reduce the number of kids gone wild during evenings and weekends, but I don't think they fully considered the impact on school traffic.

On a side note, some of my best memories of high school are driving to school. My best friend Jenny and I would sit in the back seat while her older sister, Mary, drove. They'd pick me up in the morning, along with Mary's friend who lived across the street from me... The tape deck, the laughing, the screams as we whipped through yellowred lights...

Okay, maybe cars full of teenagers are more likely to have accidents, but is one car with four teenagers more dangerous than four, one-teen cars? The law has already been adapted to allow siblings to drive together if they have a note from their parent (this required a change to the original law). Couldn't the law be adapted to allowing carpooling to and from school?

If you have any doubt, try driving around a high school during peak hours. There are so many more cars coming to campus each day, the student lot can't hold them all. The whole neighborhood fills up with cars, each bringing one student to school...
Could there be a more effective way to indoctrinate a new generation of individual drivers than to teach them that CARPOOLS KILL?

But that's not what I wanted to write about today.

One specific intersection near the high school has been especially dangerous. It's an unmarked intersection, with poor visibility and no clear right-of-way. It's one of those intersection where cars usually slow down, but too often fly right through at full speed. Really scary.

After years of cringing each time I got to that corner, on February 7 I wrote to the Goleta Mayor and City Council to request a stop sign. And today, it was there. Two actually, exactly where they were needed.

I wanted to thank the Goleta City Council for putting in those stop signs.

THAT'S what governments are for.

Serving Seiten

2007-04-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

Last week, a devastating howl was heard across the ranch. It sounded like Chewbacca had tripped into one of the gopher traps. But, no, that wasn't it.
Santa Barbara's Italian Greek Market is closing April 14, to be replaced by a Verizon store. Their gyros are considered an essential fortification for some here at the ranch, inspiring the aspiritual to enter a state of tracelike meditation.
Yes, the man will miss his gyros.
What's a vegetarian ranch cook to do?
I summon on the powers of seiten.
Seiten is cooked wheat gluten. What makes seiten a boon for veg cooks is that it has a meatier consistency than tofu or tempeh, and so it's easily used as a vegetarian meat substitute. And yes, it tastes like chicken...if you do want it to. If you've ever visited Shang Hai and enjoyed their vegetarian sweet and sour "chicken"—I hate those annoying quotes to say "chicken"—or their Mongolian "beef," you've had seiten. It can be seasoned to mimic all sorts of meaty flavors. I've been making some pretty good Italian sausage with seiten lately, a variation of the Post Punk Kitchen's Recipe o' Greatness. Sausages are an easy vegetarianable food, since after all, how much does sausage really taste like meat? It's the spices that make a good sausage good. And really, what's a gyro but a giant sausage, sliced and grilled?
The challenge in making seiten gyros will be that I haven't tasted gyros for over twenty years, so I expect a lot of trial and error in my quest for the perfect seitenic gyro.

Meanwhile, the owners of the Italian Greek Market, who also own the building, will be collecting $35,000 a MONTH in rent from the Verizon store. Does anyone else wonder why a phone company needs a high-rent storefront? $35,000 is a lot of text messages. Remember when phone calls cost a dime and you could still find independent businesses on State Street?

Why Jimmy Inhofe wasn't invited to play with the other kids

2007-03-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

As an early lesson in democratic process, most elementary school classrooms in Santa Barbara have a charter or class constitution posted on the wall. At the beginning of the school year, the kids come up with a list of rules they feel are fair ("No interrupting," for example), and they all sign their names to the agreement.

Based on this little gem from Gore's hearing yesterday, I suspect little Jimmy missed this lesson. I'm kinda embarrassed for Oklahoma...

Who to Woohoo Wednesday: Van Jones

2007-03-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when you're feeling bad, there's a perverse instinct to seek out something that will make you feel even worse. Thus, having a bad day, I find myself feeling almost nauseous after reading the transcript of this Rush Limbaugh show. Why did I do this to myself? Seriously, why? I should know better. Now I'm sick and I'm sorry.

So, for something completely different, let's try a new blog feature—Fuller & Fuller's first feature—which will focus on someone doing good. Someone to cheer. Someone who deserves a hearty "Woohoo!" Studies have shown woohoos help restore normal breathing and reduce blood pressure in sufferers of RLS. So, welcome to Who to Woohoo Wednesday!

Interviewed on Grist: Van Jones is a civil rights lawyer and activist in Oakland, and founder and director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Given the gang violence we've experienced in Santa Barbara this week, I was especially interested in his practical work with disadvantaged kids. Here are a few highlights:

There's no way to get changes big enough to solve these problems without creating pathways out of poverty for millions of new green-collar workers. The renewable economy is more labor-intensive, less capital-intensive; therefore, there should be a net increase in jobs.

There will also be lots and lots of money made. So beyond just having African-American kids be the workers in a green economy, we also want them to be inventors and investors and owners and entrepreneurs in the green economy. That's true for Latinos and other groups too.

And if you're tired about hearing Congressional feet dragging because they insist cutting emissions means cutting jobs, consider:

A lot of downward pressure on workers comes from increasingly intense competition with India and China. The good thing about renewable energy is that it's not going to be Chinese workers putting up solar panels. It's not going to be workers in India retrofitting buildings so they don't leak as much energy. Wind that's blowing in the United States is going to turn those wind turbines, not wind blowing in Asia. There is an opportunity here to do work that can't be outsourced.

Woohoo, Van Jones! Good to know you're out there.
I'm starting to feel a little better.

Risks of the dog eat dog food world

2007-03-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

Studies have shown that having a pet makes you healthier. The simple act of petting their furry forms lowers blood pressure. Sedentary people are more likely to exercise if their carpet demands it. If there's a bad guy around, I expect the ranch dogs will work together like acrobats in Cirque de Chien to quickly, and ideally comically, Culkinate them. Good dogs!

America loves its pets, but it's not all belly rubs and sunbaths. This week, pet owners are getting a wake up call about the risks of having a massive, centralized food processing and distribution system. Over 90 brands of dog and cat food have been recalled after contamination at the two U.S. plants that make and distribute the food. Turns out that Eukanuba, often considered a high-end product (and certainly priced like a high-end product), is made by the same plant that manufactures the scary Save-A-Lot brand. Guess now they're both kinda scary.

As human readers of this blog know, human food gets recalled, too--even something as unprocessed as spinach. But one of the most alarming aspects of this tragedy is the tremendous scope. I haven't found a statistic about what percentage of "cuts and gravy style" pet foods are generated by the two plants, but based on the number of recalled brands, I suspect at least half.

So, the word is: DIVERSITY. We're at risk when we put all our cuts-n-gravy in one or two baskets. It's easier to shut down one kibbleria if you can keep a few others running. The problem in this case is thought to be the wheat gluten used as filler, wheat that all came through one source. Food contamination happens, but by choosing local, minimally-processed foods, we reduce the risk, and when a problem happens, it's more manageable.

And, as George reminded us, it's in our best interest to pay attention to what we feed the dogs, lest they discover that we, too, are made out of meat.

What we'll sow

2007-03-14T07:02:00.000-07:00

The unlikely title "Something to applaud the Bush Administration for" caught my attention on Grist this morning. Sounds like the new Farm Bill is moving in the right direction, according to the linked opinion piece in the New York Times which says

...it includes the most generous conservation program ever offered by this administration: increasing spending by $7.8 billion over 10 years on land conservation and investing an additional $1 billion a year in a bold new program to develop renewable fuels other than corn ethanol from farm crops.

All this represents a significant break from past farm bills, which have traditionally provided heavy subsidies for big growers of corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and rice who are concentrated in a handful of states. Half of all farm spending, which amounts to about $12.5 billion annually, now flows to just 22 Congressional districts.

The problems with this system are legion. At home, it drives small farmers out of business and compromises the environment. Abroad, it penalizes third-world farmers and jeopardizes trade talks.

The more I learn about food production and distribution, the more I appreciate how important these issues are for all of us. The system we have now—the seasonless miracle market with year-round everything—exacts a terrible price. It sounds as though this Farm Bill is taking a small but significant step in the right direction.

In related news, the word Monsanto should send chills up your spine.

Rubbing rostrums with the whales

2007-03-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

Like most kids who grow up on the SoCal coast, I've been whale watching. The Dramamine Cruise field trip is a rite of passage in San Diego, a chance to get cold and nauseous with your classmates while looking for waves on the horizon that are darker than the other waves on the horizon. We are told, since there is no discernable whaleness or whaley features whatsoever, The dark waves are whales! Real live whales! This is our cue to squeal with glee, and hurray! It's finally time turn the boat around and get some hot chocolate. It is, at least potentially, a fascinating glimpse of the natural world, though I suspect that the experience spawns more future orgasm-fakers than future naturalists. Not that the two are exclusive. But I digress...

When we were invited to spend a week whale watching in Baja, I was excited about having a vacation together, spending time with family friends, and exploring a new place... To be honest, seeing the whales was toward the bottom of list of reasons I wanted to go.

I blog to you today as a reformed whale watching sceptic. Laguna San Ignacio is one of three nursery areas for the gray whales, and the only one that has not been developed. When Mitsubishi and the Mexican government planned to build a huge salt plant in the lagoon, NRDC stepped in, and the resulting victory is one of the great environmental success stories and a model of ecotourism. The area is now recognized as a protected biosphere, with restrictions on future development and carefully limited camping and boating.

The local economy is growing stronger, with a crafts cooperative that thrives making whale souvenirs and schools that have received generous grants for Internet access and technology. Not to mention jobs as pangeros, guides, drivers, and cooks... and wow, what cooks!

It doesn't seem right to call the experience "whale watching," a term that's been tainted by those early field trips and is far too passive to describe the contact we had. What we experienced was whale rubbing, whale singing, whale cooing, dunking our heads into the water and looking the whales in the eye. About 10% of the whales that come to San Ignacio are "friendlies"—they seem to enjoy contact with humans. Mother whales actually guide their calves toward the small boats.

The whale in this picture is a calf, just a couple of months old, already substantially bigger than our boat. The shape lurking beneath is the mother, who also came up to be petted. There were two 1-1/2 hour boat trips each day, and I lost count of how many individual whales we met.

After boating, we returned to camp at Punta Piedras, to spend time exploring the mangroves, looking at shells and bones on the beach, eating delicious fresh foods, or sitting along the bluffs, with the teal green waters of the shallows giving way to the darker currents that teemed with whales spyhopping, blowing, breaching and mating. Our view from shore was better than the view I've experienced on most whale watching cruises, but now even the distant whales have become real to me, and more intimate. They aren't just some dark, wave-like abstraction of a whale anymore.

On our first day home yesterday, we went for a run along the cliffs above the beach, scanning the horizon for traces for flukes or sprays, but saw only the smooth Pacific. They're out there, though. I know it.

The Noodly Appendage

2007-03-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

My friend Cissy is one of the coolest people I have ever met. Not only is she cool, she has seriously cool stuff. She has an Aretha Franklin banner hanging outside her house. She has a porcupine-quill suit on display in her living room. She has long red clown shoes under the coffee table. She has a KitchenAid Professional mixer.

And I have a KitchenAid Professional mixer!

The KitchenAid Professional is an amazing machine. But Cissy's was even cooler than mine because she has the pasta making attachment. I say "was" cooler because, now that I have a pasta making attachment too, mine is just as cool.

Last night we tried out our new noodly appendage, and made our first batch of homemade pasta. The basic recipe for homemade noodles couldn't be simpler: flour, eggs, water. I strolled out to the coop to gather fresh eggs, noticing new buds on the apricot trees and the first blossoms on the snow peas.

You have to break a few eggs to make noodles. The recipe called for 3 eggs, plus two Tablespoons of water, and additional water enough to make 3/4 cup total liquid. I cracked three eggs into the measuring cup, only to find that 3 ranch eggs are well over 3/4 cup, before adding any water. So, in this case, you only have to break a couple of eggs to make noodles.

Adjusting the recipe, we commenced pastapalooza. Sure, pasta making is simple, and lots of people do it all the time even without a KitchenAid, but it was a new adventure for us. With our friend Dave helping, the process was one part gourmet kitchen, one part Play-Doh Barber Shop, and two parts Lucy in the candy factory. The KitchenAid pumped out a steady stream of noodle, which we gathered onto a linen towel to dry. The results would never be confused with the store-bought and varied from string bean to coffee bean in length, but once the little pastinis were cooked, we called it macaroni. And it was delicious!

Last night, I made pasta, something that I've always bought prepared at the store. I reclaimed lost knowledge; my father says his mother made noodles all the time, yet I've never seen anyone in my family do it, and I've certainly never done it myself. To me, pasta has been something to buy, not make. I've grown up in a culture that replaced cooking with processed foods. On one hand, making noodles isn't really that big a deal; on the other, I felt like Ghandi, making my own cloth. There's an alchemist's high when a familiar food casts off its packaging and reveals its humble origins. I no more expected to make macaroni in my own kitchen than I would expect to make gold. Behold, the powerful noodly appendage!

It's one more step away from the supermarket. Plus, all the cool kids are doing it.

"The Great Turning"

2007-02-26T21:19:00.000-08:00

There are times when the old dictionary seems too small, times when one has a kind of vocabularic growth spurt. For example, a new job often requires new jargon. Illnesses have their own language--I remember the months when "metastisized" first worked its way into my conversations. Sometimes it's a new interest--with biofuels, I'm learning about B100, B20, E85, SVO and WVO. Who knew?

Right now, climate change seems to be triggering a crop of hybridized terms and ideas. Ideas like food miles, sustainability, voluntary simplicity, and green are entering our conversations in new ways. One of my favorite new terms, used as the title of a book by David Korten, is The Great Turning. I haven't started the book yet (being belly-deep in The Omnivore's Dilemna) but I find the title evocative.

So often it feels like instead of life being a road or a path, it's more like one of those giant carnival slides. It's as if we're rocketing toward our destination, with too much momentum to change.

The fact is, no matter where we are, how far we've wandered down a path, we can reassess our direction. We can make adjustments, we can take few exploratory steps, we can even undertake a great turning. Maybe we can't go back, but there's always more than one way to reach a destination. "The point of no return" is a convenient myth, one that gets us off the hook when we're tired of our options. It may feel like your butt's on the burlap and some clown is getting ready to push you down that slippery slope, but the fact is, you can stop. Take a breath. And choose. Stop. Take a breath. And choose.

Howzabout them resolutions?

2007-02-21T21:28:00.000-08:00

My friend George pointed out recently that my 2006 resolutions were like a forecast from Oppositeland.

Well, that wasn't exactly what he said, and it was actually a couple of months ago that he said it, but the point is that well-before their 365 day term was over, my January first resolutions had been cast aside, quicker than flannel pajamas.

Which is why I love Lent.

I'm not Catholic, but I appreciate the chance to refine my (often already compromised) new year's resolutions a bit and then having just 40 days to live with them.

We're making a lot of positive changes at the ranch--less driving, lower thermostat, simple foods... In some ways I feel that we've been working so hard already, there's not much left to renounce without donning the Holy Cloak of the Cranky Martyr.

At the same time, I've never felt more urgency to change. The bizarre weather we've been having reminds me that the stakes are very, very high. Perhaps that's the slogan for this era of climate change—Renunciations: they're not just for Lent anymore!

On the personal level, Lent is like a celestial dare, a cosmic "oh yeah? prove it!" I just can't let the challenge pass.

So, for this year, I've committed to cooking vegan meals when we eat at home (with the exception of eggs from our own hens). Good motivation to dust off the recipe books, forsake quesadillas, and cook out of my comfort zone.

Let the countdown begin.

"Celebrating" Presidents' Day?

2007-02-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

Not this president, that's for sure.

This holiday is intended to celebrate our great leaders. In elementary school, remember making construction-paper portraits of Abraham Lincoln with his stovepipe hat, or Washington with his cotton-ball hairdo? Back in the day when we often had two 3-day weekends in a row, before we decided to honor our dead presidents by moving their birthdays around to make for more convenient holidays (heck, it worked for Jesus Christ's birthday, right?). Back in the day when we signed first name, last initial. Jesus C., Abraham L., George W. Before the worst president ever put his cooties all over the first president's name.

How should we celebrate this Presidents' Day? How to honor what the presidency has been, and can be, while recognizing what it isn't?

Let's begin by wearing black. This Presidents' Day feels like a day of mourning and remembrance, not celebration.

Any other ideas?

I'm Spartacus!

2007-02-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

As another sister would say:

"Who you calling a bitch?"

—Queen Latifah, "U.N.I.T.Y."

The Spartacus Project

History! Pagentry! Stupid little barrettes!

2007-02-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

The ranch dogs can't figure out my fascination with the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and I'm not sure I can either. There are a lot of things to dislike about it. While rescue groups struggle to find homes even for purebred dogs, some folks are breeding litter after litter hoping for a puppy whose muzzle is just a little wider or narrower or longer, a puppy who will define the ideal of a breed whose original purpose is something like "monk's foot warmer" or "badger slayer" or "sled hauler"—all noble tasks to be sure, but rare roles for dogs in America today. Dog shows are elitist, snobbish places where the people who succeed believe in ugly puppies. Ugly puppies? Seriously.

To be fair, it takes a lot of dedication—and money—to get a dog to Westminster. The people there are at the top of the sport. They are passionate about breed histories, pedigrees, and bizarre grooming rituals. Generally, Westminster dogs are not field champions or workers. At its root, Westminster is a canine beauty contest. At least Miss America is expected to have some kind of talent or skill. The dog who wins Best of Show at Westminster just looks more like its breed than other dogs look like their breeds. It sometimes feels like the orangiest orange winning over a very appley apple.

So, why do I watch? My best guess is that as a mutt lover, it's kinda like flipping through our dogs' family albums. Our current mongrel pack represents well over a dozen breeds, packed into five furry bodies.

In the Terrier Group, I see where one dog might get his brindle coat. With the Working Group, I notice the familiar bounce of ears that suggest one of our dogs is part Boxer or perhaps flying nun. I can watch a dozen Chihuahuas and Chow Chows. I can thank God I don't have a Chinese Crested. I suppose it's voyeurism, but it's also curiousity.

That's the deal with shelter dogs. We'll never know where our dogs came from, what their lives were like before they joined our pack. We can't be 100% sure of their parentage. We didn't see them as puppies, and they'll never have puppies of their own. But if they did, there is no way, no way, any of those puppies would be ugly.

Cutting the Cheese

2007-02-09T16:28:00.000-08:00

It's been over twenty years since two jobs collided to push me off Meat-Eater Mountain. Working for a veterinarian during the week and a restaurant on the weekends, one day would bring a dachschund in surgery and the next a ham on the slicer. Perhaps it could have gone the other way, and I might have developed a craving for dachshund, but at it happened neither sounded too appetizing after awhile.

I was also reading a lot about the environment, including the classic Diet for a Small Planet, in which Francis Moore Lappe pointed out that with the enormous amount of resources required to produce a pound of beef you could grow a hill of beans. I was also concerned about animal welfare, and as I learned about factory farming I realized that I cared more about cows than I cared for beef.
By Lent of my senior year in high school, I was ready to give up red meat for good. I gave up poultry about six-months later.

I've never been an evangelical vegetarian. I am too lazy for fanaticism. My goal is to keep a balance in my life between our nutritional needs, my idealism, and convenience. Fish still appear on the Fuller menu occassionally, with efforts to be mindful of what's local and low-impact. To avoid factory-farmed eggs, we have three little hens who give us a dozen fresh eggs a week and eat bugs from the garden.

Some part of me thinks that if I were really walking the walk, I'd go vegan. 100%. I mean, I can see the merits: it's likely that dairy cows do even more environmental harm that beef cattle, and factory farming is factory farming. but... no grilled cheese??? No gorgonzola salad? Will I still be able to appreciate Wallace & Gromit?

It's kind of a drag that the more I focused I become on growing our own food and avoiding agribusiness, the harder it is to ignore the damn source. I'd like to find a local organinic dairy in Santa Barbara, but failing that, I may have to cut the cheese. Maybe not 100%, but maybe 80%. Or 60%. Depending on how the soy pizza works out.

Frances Moore Lappe's Small Planet Institute is worth a visit. And David Roberts recently shared his Vegetarizing Moment on Grist.

Yes, but will we?

2007-02-06T07:05:00.000-08:00

Thus did NASA scientist James Hansen began his lecture: "Can We Avoid Dangerous Climate Change." Hansen has been doing research on global warming since the 70s. Based on his presentation last night, he has spent countless hours poring over computer print-outs, with few opportunities for public speaking. He was not a dynamic presenter, yet the event filled UCSB's largest venue and TWO overflow lecture halls with standing room only. Having ridden our electric bikes from the ranch, we arrived in time to find seats in the overflow rooms.

Fortunately for Fuller & Fuller, the crowd thinned out after the talk, and we were able to get a seat in Campbell Hall for the panel discussion with UCSB's David Lea and UCSD Scripps Institute's Ralph Keeling (son of Charles "Keeling Curve" Keeling). This part of the evening was far more lively than Hansen's lecture, even Hansen was more lively than Hansen had been.

An interesting spirit of patriotism and solidarity filled the room. Hansen started it off by saying "I think our founders would be disappointed..." which drew a round of agreement from the audience. Rather than turning to despair, Keeling encouraged us to return to the "can do" spirit that was so critical in founding our nation. The audience agreed. As the man of the ranch whispered to me, it's not the can do attitude we need, it's the can do without. That was my favorite quote of the night.

Riding past Goleta Beach on our way back to the ranch, the waning moon cast a bright reflection across the waves and illuminated the ridges on the mountains.

I love this place. I hope we won't ruin it.

The Ostrich: Smart Bird or Super Chicken?

2007-02-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it's cowardice, short winter days, or emotional-self preservation that's making me want to bury my head in the sand lately.

I seem to remember feeling this way before; in junior high, I started reading horror books. I spent a lot of time at home alone, and was prone to getting the creeps, but I still read horror books. About halfway through a Stephen King or John Saul, I'd find myself so freaked out that I couldn't get out of my chair unless someone else was home. Sometimes I was stuck for hours. No thirst, no hunger, no need to pee could move me. The only things that could break the spell were my mom coming home, or finishing the damn book. No matter how petrified I was, I was compelled to keep reading and reading until the end, until the resolution, when the monster was finally (if not permanently) conquered.

So, now we have global warming, and I'm getting that feeling again. Fortunately, not the "can't get out of my chair" part, but the compulsion to delve deeper and deeper into some stuff that's scaring the heck out of me. This week's headlines don't help: scientists are coming forward about being pressured into silence, other scientists conclude global warming is likely caused by humans, still others find that yes, it does create stronger hurricanes.

Sometimes I feel that maybe I've just tuned into it, the way you suddenly notice a new band only to find they've been getting airplay for months, or the way that Chihuahua owners notice Chihuahuas. Whatever the reason—and excuse the pun—global warming is a hot topic. It's everywhere.

So I keep reading and reading. The book selected for our community reading program, Santa Barbara Reads!, is Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change, by Elizabeth Kolbert. I've just started it. Chapter 1 summary: unprecedented artic ice melting. Stop me if you've heard this one...

I'm not complaining about the book itself. It's very well written. Yet I wonder why I'm reading it. I wonder if I will learn anything new, or if I'll just come away with more images of drowning polar bears and more dire details that confirm what I already believe. I suppose it's part morbid fascination, part thirst for knowledge, part quest for cure, and part just can't stop reading even though it's scaring me witless.

I'm considering a self-imposed media moratorium, simply avoiding the issue to give myself a psychic rest. Wallowing in the rising waters isn't very good for me. At the same time, along with bouts of despair, I get moments of hope when I see our leaders and lawmakers creating real change. It's a good time to be a Californian. Sometimes.

I don't know. Days like this, I just wonder if maybe the ostrich has the right idea.

Last call for resolutions

2007-01-31T22:12:00.000-08:00

So, a friend passed along this quote the other day. It comes from Katha Pollitt's New Year's column in The Nation, and since it's a New Year's column, and today January 31, this is the last day I can file a response. Among her "Resolutions for Liberals" is:

4. Don't think your lifestyle can save the world. I love slow food! I cook slow food! I shop at farmers' markets, I pay extra for organic, I am always buying cloth bags and forgetting to bring them to the supermarket. But the world will never be saved by highly educated, privileged people making different upscale consumer choices. If you have enough money to buy grass-fed beef or tofu prepared by Tibetan virgins, you have enough money to give more of it away to people who really need it and groups that can make real social change.

I find I often agree with Katha, but this... well, I have to hope what Katha means to say is that individually changing your own lifestyle is--on its own--not meaningless, but is not enough, and we need to support groups working on a larger scale.

Of course it's ridiculous to suggest that we can shop our way out of this mess by running up our platinum cards at the Eco-tique, but it's also ridiculous to discount our individual efforts as frivolous. After all, there seems little doubt that the habits and expectations of American consumers have added more than a few notches to Al Gore's PowerPoints. Unless you really believe it is Too Late--or you're a Jesus Camper and exempt from global warming--there's every reason to change your lifestyle, preferably now. Even small steps are better than no steps at all.

If it's the "upscale" part that bothers Katha, would we be better off saving our pennies at WalMart and sending checks to charities? I can't believe that's better.

The world will not be saved by a single magic-bullet Answer, but rather a combination of choices made by nations, corporations, communities, AND individuals.

It's the implied either/orness of her resolution that bothers me. True, we can't do it on our own, but we can't send in a check and expect someone else to do it for us.

So, it's hard to save the world. It's complicated. I'm finding it hard and complicated just to change my own habits. And maybe it's because I'm working so hard that I'm ready to fight anyone who says my choices don't matter. I found this article in the Guardian to be a good example of small steps based on a "low carbon diet." Some were new to me. I, for one, plan to avoid having a second fridge by keeping more booze in the outhouse for 2007.

And I resolve to keep working on my lifestyle.

Hoping the plot thickens...

2007-01-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

Getting a ride to work today, I had the passenger's luxury of gazing out the window. I realized that a vacant lot I often drive past is actually a tiny patch of farmland, tucked into an industrial area. The land was bare, recently tilled, ready for a new crop.

Hope!

"And I am the Queen of Ramenania..."

2007-01-25T20:27:00.000-08:00

The quote of the day comes from the NYT obituary for ramen inventor Momofuku Ando

Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Give him ramen noodles, and you don’t have to teach him anything

Don't fear the reaper...

2007-01-25T12:10:00.000-08:00

From a city girl perspective, there's always been something a little sick about 4H. The "love 'em until you eat 'em" concept of raising and nurturing a little lamb or piglet or calf, then willingly—even proudly—sending it off to slaughter... well, it's just kinda perverse. Of course, buying detached chicken breasts wrapped in plastic is perverse too, but I still picture those kids as thirty-year-old drunks pawning their 4H trophies to pay their bookies, dealers, or therapists... it's a brutal lesson from the cute and fluffy side of the food chain.

We're mostly vegetarians here at the ranch, so one of our first projects was building a little salad corral close to the house. A couple of months later, we have some of the most beautiful lettuce I've ever seen. I mean, these leaves are gorgeous, glossy, crisp, with some especially lovely deep merlot leaves the vegetable counterpart of the 300 lb. angus calf, and I'm thinking of those poor 4H kids because it's time to harvest the little darlings.

At least we can just nibble away a few leaves at a time. Harder to linger with your livestock...

"Locally grown food requires local farms."

2007-01-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

This week's EdHat Veggie of the Week column on sustainable and local foods is worth reading.

Those Lake Wobegone Days

2007-01-23T22:56:00.000-08:00

When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to work in a café bookstore. It was poorly stocked and even more poorly managed. The business plan was to offer overpriced coffee drinks and bistro fare in an "intellectual environment" in which the books were little more than props. Since we were in a mall, we were almost entirely bestseller list. The back shelves of the store pathetically attempted to represent everything else worth reading with a chaos of mishelved anthologies and "classics." Picture the average airport bookstore, add a coffee bar, and that was Upstart Crow.

Working there, I learned about Chapter 11. Chapter 11 bankruptcy meant that my supervisors, bitter because they will never get another raise and knowing inventory is going to a liquidator, promoted the "five-finger employee discount." They wanted those shelves empty. Shift by shift, I lifted an entire library. It was one of the best jobs ever.

Every shift at least one customer--generally a silver-haired Sierra Clubber meeting for afternoon tea--would buy a copy of a book called Lake Wobegone Days. "Hilarious!" they'd say, "I've given copies to my entire family!" Intrigued, I stole a copy and read it. Then I took it back to the store. It was too boring to keep, and there were obviously other people out there that would really enjoy it. From what I could tell, nothing ever happened at Lake Wobegonney. It was perhaps the dullest fictional town ever. Or non-fictional. Whatever.

Now I come to an unexpected rite of passage: finding myself enjoying Garrison Keillor. It's easy to think that I'm the same person I've always been, and it's good to have markers that tell me I'm not. Tonight, I'm filled with a distinctly Wobegonish nostalgia that I was incapable of feeling in 1985, and it makes me realize that I have--despite some of my best efforts--changed and softened a little in my life. If that's not worth some praise songs, I don't know what is.

Three dog nights

2007-01-22T08:22:00.000-08:00

It's been a lonely week here at the ranch. The exciting news is that we managed to lasso an eco-diesel engine that will be dropped into one of the Vegas, and sounds like it will get over 50 mpg on the freeway running biodiesel. Yeeha!

All week, the man and two biggest dogs have been out ridin' the range, leaving the three smallest dogs behind to guard the hens. It's been freezing most nights, and I've been grateful to have the three little ones cuddled up on the bed.

Most of our ranch dogs are shelter dogs. We're lucky in Santa Barbara to have an active, creative volunteer group at the County Shelter, so most adoptable dogs in the area get a chance at finding a good home or temporary foster home. One of the really cool things that the Dog Adoption Welfare Group (DAWG) is doing is taking videos of adoptable dogs and posting them to YouTube. Awwwww! So cute!

It's too bad that dogs, like gardens, have been pushed out of so many places: lots of shops, all restaurants, some parks, and too much housing is off limits. There are a lot of reasons, including irresponsible owners, "health" concerns, liability fears... it's always a bit of a trick to negotiate the civilized and natural worlds, but I don't think there's any question that it's worth it. Allowing people to share their homes and workspaces with dogs has too many benefits to ignore, CC&Rs be damned.

In today's news, yet another report about how dog owners live happier, longer, healthier lives. So even with three dogs, I guess I'm only 60% as happy and healthy this week as I have been lately. I'm looking forward to having my other two dogs back at home again. Best of all, they're bringing the man home with them.

Good dogs.

Why Johnny Thinks Microwaving is Cooking

2007-01-19T08:59:00.000-08:00

More on the theme of "why it's important to remember that reheating a pizza is not cooking":

...Cooper has certainly taken on a daunting task. She currently serves as nutrition director of the Berkeley Unified School System, a 16-school, 9,000-student outfit in California. When she took the job in 2005, she found that the district's food-service system had completely retreated from actual cooking. "When I arrived, 100 percent of the food arrived in plastic, was reheated in plastic, and served to the kids in plastic," she says.

Overcoming an absurdly stringent budget and severely limited cooking infrastructure within school cafeterias, she has already eliminated what she calls "plastic food" and is now serving fresh, made-from-scratch meals. But she has no intention of stopping there. She would like to overthrow the logic that has made school cafeterias conduits through which convenience-food manufacturers reach children's impressionable palates.

...

According to Cooper, it started during World War II, when military planners discovered that widespread malnutrition among the nation's youth was hampering their ability to fight effectively. In the initial post-war decades, the school-lunch program worked pretty well, Cooper says. "There were actually real people cooking food from scratch in every public school in the country," she adds. "And no one thought about charging -- meals were free for every kid."

But economic crisis in the mid-1970s galvanized the backlash against New Deal programs that continues to grip U.S. politics to this day. As kitchen equipment installed in the 1940s and 1950s began to decay, Congress didn't allot money to replace it. Skilled cooks -- the "lunch ladies" Cooper harks back to -- reached retirement age, and their jobs went unfilled. School kitchens gradually turned into reheating centers staffed by button-pushers, not cooks, and school districts began to outsource food preparation to a booming convenience-food industry, which was just then discovering the wonders of high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fat....

"Meet the Lunch Lady" at Grist.org

Breaking bread

2007-01-18T09:11:00.000-08:00

I admire people who do beautiful, creative work that no one else will ever see. There's a spiritual purity to it: I imagine Buddhist monks in Nepal, making sand mandalas on windswept mountains. I imagine the Anchorite who careful sets a place at a rustic table before eating a bowl of gruel. I imagine nuns carefully polishing icons that are hidden away in catacombs. And I think, that is so not me.

Sure, the inspiration part comes, the ideals are there, but before I invest any perspiration, I need a little motivation. Like George, I really enjoy cooking and reading recipes, but unlike George I just can't get excited about cooking for myself. Nor do I get excited about mandatory daily mom-style cooking when people would be just as happy, maybe happier, with a box of mac-n-cheese. I'm working on it.

But when the motivation comes, I embrace the opportunity. Give me an occasion, and I'll give you some cooking.

My friend Noelle over at Aguayo Shed became a mother last week, and a group of friends organized to bring the new family dinner each night while they're settling in. ("All aboard the food train! Chew, chew!!!") The previously-mentioned Soup with Ingredients (including kale) was inspired by my turn as conductor on the food train last night. I also enjoyed bringing salad that we (mostly) grew ourselves, and garnishing it with some fresh chive flowers. Presentation is half the fun.

Not only is it fun to cook a special meal, it's fun to share a meal with friends. It's enough to make me rethink the word potluck, which has long been filed in my mind alongside such words as housedress and Schlitz. I'd like to have more excuses to fire up the KitchenAid Professional and make something flashy and ridiculously labor-intensive that can be ooohed and ahhhed over for a few moments before disappearing. I like to oooh and ahhh over friends' cooking. I like meals that are savored as art, celebration, and communion, but I'm not the type to practice rituals in isolation—I need a congregation to infuse them with meaning.

I'll be sad when the food train reaches its stop. And probably a little hungry, too.

Why Johnny Can't Cook

2007-01-17T18:06:00.000-08:00

I miss home economics.

Not that I really know what home economics class was like, since even when I was just a young Princess Whackamole myself, home ec was passe. Technically it was still offered, but only paired with "consumer math," a class that supposedly included looking up information in the phone book as part of the final exam. Not the academic track I travelled. Apparently the track I was on was expected to lead to a career with a high salary so I could hire people who took home ec.

Just by chance, I was lucky enough to have cooking as a summer class during elementary school. We learned how to make scrambled eggs (including holding the bowl at an angle while whisking), orange juice, lemonade, toast, and pancakes. (Teachers, thinking ahead to Mother's Day and Father's Day mornings, know that a good breakfast in bed translates to happy parents voting for teacher raises.) If it weren't for that class, I might be living on ramen today.

The fact is, I still forget how to cook from time to time. I fall into the habit of "fixing" dinner, as though I were "fixing" my hair. I forget to use actual ingredients, and instead end up doing little more than arranging food: pouring pasta from the plastic bag into some boiling water, draining it, throwing on some Trader Joe's Vodka Sauce, and putting a handful of baby spinach on the plate next to it. Not much more than a sophisticated ramen, really. Remembering to cook in the way that requires me to chop up onions, carrots, and even kale, and make a delicious soup takes a special effort. I get stuck in the trap of convenient, nutriousish prefab food. So I blame the school system.

Right-wing, homeschooling types will say "If you leave cooking up to the public school system, we'll have a nation of limp-wristed whiskers! Cooking should be taught in the home. Ideally in Kansas." Well, maybe. I've tried from time to time to get the rest of the family interested in cooking, and it's just not happening. Dinner prep time overlaps with homework time. And what it really comes down to is: I'm lazy. If I were slightly more strategic in my laziness I would see that training a young cook to make dinner could allow for much future laziness, but a nap on the couch is worth two in the future.

So, now I'm having to face up to either teaching the young Princess Whackamole, or joining the ranks of parents sending their kids to college with a microwave and a pallet of Hot Pockets.

I know children should learn to cook, but isn't this why we pay taxes?

Rebels rollin' with the SoCalBUG

2007-01-16T17:57:00.000-08:00

The distinguished gentleman at Big Table Blog raises some excellent points about the reason v. emotion smackdown as it relates to going green. As much as know what we should be doing, there's that inner James Dean who's half-sneering, half-daring the square inside to think about things like food miles, wind power, solar ovens, or MPG.

But we do think about those things here at the ranch. Another ongoing project is rebuilding cars, less the blingy Porsche 550 Spyder kind of rebuild than the bionic eco-Vega kind of rebuild, taking lightweight cars and polishing up the fuel efficiency a few miles at a time. Certain people here have been known to whoop in delight over finding headers on eBay that will add another five mpg. But still, gas is gas.

We're really excited about experimenting with biodiesel, though only one of our cars uses it now. Any car that runs diesel can use biodiesel, if you can find it. Until recently, there was only one fuel station in town that offered it, and that on a members-only basis. We signed up with the Southern California Biodiesel Users' Group, which got us into the biodiesel cartel. Woohoo!

Still, having to join a group to buy an expensive, difficult to find, and good for the planet fuel seems a little like having to join a club before flossing. It's enough of an obstacle to discourage folks that might be interested in trying it. That's why it's exciting news to us that the first (non-member) biodiesel station opened in Santa Barbara last Friday. Even better, Jack Johnson showed up!

So I'm looking forward to cruising down there before too long, once my little red Vega wagon is up and running. Getting away from the gasoline pump is something I should be doing, but driving that Vega is something I want to be doing. Bite me, James Dean. I'd rather ride with Jack Johnson any day.

I thought I was gonna be sick...

2007-01-16T17:39:00.000-08:00

It seems ironic that, after writing so much about local food, food poisoning almost keeps me from writing. I feel feverish, nauseous, etc., and hid my head under the covers until late afternoon.

I suspect it was either a bad batch of salsa or reading this review of Hell and High Water.

Or both.

Where does our garden grow?

2007-01-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Supporting local food is pretty darn easy in Santa Barbara where we have year-round farmer's markets. It takes a little planning. since the market hours are limited, and selection limited by what is in season. There's an awesome website, Local Harvest, with a national directory of farms, markets, and co-ops that sell local foods. Unfortunately, it's still easier to stroll out of Trader Joe's with a plastic box of tomatoes from Chile.

Awareness and education have a tough battle to fight against convenience. Most of us aren't used to planning our meal around what's in season--we plan our meals based on what we're in the mood for. I just don't get "in the mood for" kale, though I know it's good for me and blah, blah, blah. But maybe it's time to get over that.

As to Patrick's question below, I think food activism begins at home, but needs to grow from there. There's a lot our local government can do to help (or hurt), but that's another entry.

We hope that by this time next year will be growing more than half of our food at the ranch. In addition to delicious salads, oranges, and tangerines, we'll have canned and dried tomatoes of our own, plus fresh broccoli, avocados, nuts, and maybe even some kale.

Dirty little patriots

2007-01-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

Yes, I drove to the anti-Bush rally tonight. Especially since Bush started this war, I try to keep driving to a minimum and bike whenever I can. Don't care for oil companies, international oil politics... but still drive a gas-powered car. Yes, I believe our appetite has gotten out of hand. Yes, I have chanted "No Blood for Oil!"

But blood for food might be a different story. If food were scarce, it would be difficult to suggest one simply stop consuming so much FOOD.

So, where's the protest about our increasing dependence on foreign agriculture? Even in California, produce may travel thousands of miles before reaching the local market. This administration has made it clear that it intends to protect the interests of the mega-corporations. Okay, now imagine that Haliburton is in the fruits and veggies game... that's the kind of monopolistic agri-businesses that think it's okay to spend 36 times as much fossil fuel energy in transporting a head of lettuce as the lettuce provides in food energy . Right now, the market is flooded with garlic from China. Sure, that's bad news for vampires, but it's truly frightening on many levels: politically, environmentally, gastronomically... It's not a new problem, but it's fair to say it's a growing one. (Get it? Growing problem?)

I guess what's on my mind is a combination of two ideas: food miles and food production. Both link into the local food movement from different directions. One thing that is NOT on my mind is suggesting we'd be better off without Australian wines or Swiss chocolate or any of that. There are delicious things to savor about global trade. Mustards, for example. Or Belizian hot sauce.

As a community and as a nation, it seems silly to out source our food source. And as we reduce the number of miles we drive, it makes sense to look at the number of miles our food travels. It's time to bring back the Victory Garden, and support local farmers in any way we can.

Firing my retail therapist

2007-01-10T23:06:00.000-08:00

Growing up female in Southern California, I learned soon after I got my first job how to handle stress effectively: retail therapy. A little shopping, a little something new and sparkly, and voilá! Serenity with a return-ready receipt.

I used to love shopping. Now, not so much. Boxes seem less like presents to open, and more like waste, packaging and stuff for which I'll have to find storage space. I went to New Orleans with a relief group to gut houses last spring, and saw the toxic festering piles of throw pillows, princess dolls, and mardi gras beads. Video tapes, shampoo bottles, cookbooks--all melded together by heat and toxic sludge. There used to be a stop-smoking program I heard of that showed you disgusting things as you smoked, as a way of aversion training. New Orleans had that effect on me as a shopper. The thrill is gone.

The world is full of fascinating, useful, innovative, and beautiful objects. The marketplace is packed with them, along with a lot of "cheap" and poorly-made crap, which nonetheless can have a certain appeal. I put "cheap" in quotes because, of course, it isn't really. Too often things are low priced because they are made by people working under unimaginable conditions, in countries without hazardous waste disposal policies, and sent to the US in the hulls of huge polluting ships. The more mindful I become of where these trinkets come from, the less I find retail therapy working its magic.

I wish I could say I've outgrown stress, and though there seems no good reason for it lately, I still find myself wound up to that shopping point. At that point, if I can't get out to the garden, I sometimes find myself shopping, only leave the store empty-handed and disgusted by consumer culture. I wouldn't go so far as to call it an addiction, but it's a habit. Can't stop trying to scratch that amputated limb.

This year, we tried Christmas with fewer presents, but at the end, we caved a bit. Even if we can begin to dream of Christmas without the wrapping paper and perfunctary gift cards, it's hard to resist the traditions and expectations of our families. There's a lot of yuletide inertia working against change.

So, ex-smokers chew gum. What will it be for me? How do I get rid of this phantom shopping bag I feeling dangling from my hand?

Me! Me!

2007-01-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

I've been encouraged to write about me! me! by my friend George over at INOTBB

Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies: One Hundred Years of Solitude, I suppose, though it's been awhile since I've sent one down the reader river... I've also gone through a lot of So Far from Gods, a book by Ana Castillo that is a gringo-chick intro to magical realism and used to seem really edgey...
Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music: Grease, the movie soundtrack. Got a copy for my birthday, put it on Mom's stereo, and yippee! Dancing!
Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue: The Black Stallion. It's just freakin' beautiful.
Name a work of art you'd like to live with: "Queen Calafia's Magical Circle" would be fun...
Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life: My Side of the Mountain. About this kid who runs away and makes his home in a tree trunk in the Catskill Mountains. He had a trained falcon, made traps, flipped grown-ups the finger. A book that triggered many early self-sufficiency fantasies. That, and all the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Name a punch line that always makes you laugh: "Is the bar tender here?"

Oh, not "me! me!"?

What the heck is a meme? I have much to learn about this strange new blogsphere I have entered...

In the spirit of full(er) disclosure...

2007-01-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

Because we are in the blogsphere, dear reader, and can't see for yourself, I should explain that "the ranch" is a term used somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

We love dirt. We love animals. We love gardening. Yet the more-Gabor side of us wants to be close to town, friends, and school. We're not ready to buy the farm just yet. So we are working on our own version of the urban homestead.

Our home is part of a subdivision, complete with CC&Rs and status-quo neighbors on all sides. Our half- acre lot is large by cityfolk standards, but by ranch standards... well...

In my opinion, it's an ideal Green-Acrey compromise. We're about 10 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara, blocks from the beach, and close to work. Better yet, we're close to two of the best garden shops in the county, Island Seed & Feed and Terra Sol.

Oh yeah, this is my kind of ranch...

The Big Mountain outside the window

2007-01-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

One of the first projects we undertook at the ranch was removing a massive Hollywood juniper, the Hindu Godzilla of patio trees. Its arms were spread out in front of the kitchen window as if the tree was guarding some celestial basketball hoop, so looking out of the window, day or night, was really just gazing at its deep forest green-black navel. It was a mesmerizing, menacing, and doomed tree.

Cutting down the tree was a huge project, and we didn't finish until after sunset. Standing at the kitchen sink, gazing into the familiar darkness, I noticed a light to the north, an unusual but not unheard of approach for airplanes coming into Santa Barbara.
The next morning, we woke up and staggered toward the coffee maker to discover mountain views. Gorgeous, cloud-capped mountains. And on the patio, a branch-strewn battleground and the thick stump of the conquered tree.

One of our missions at the ranch is to grow as much of our own food as we can. Strictly speaking, the juniper was replaced by a navel orange, two types of tangerine, a Meyer lemon, and a blueberry bush. But it was also replaced by the ridge of mountains, this reminder of all we are striving toward, literal and symbolic summits ahead of us.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

2007-01-06T21:57:00.000-08:00

the seeds for the blog are sown. We have two huge hoops full of mushroom compost, a bale and and a half of straw, and a barrel of soaked peat moss at the ready.
Let's see what grows.